


With you until the end

by RandyRobot



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, I'll add more as I update, M/M, Major Character Injury, Slow Burn, Threesome - M/M/M, gross stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:21:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandyRobot/pseuds/RandyRobot
Summary: Zombie apocalypse au, the worst time to catch feelings for your teammates.





	1. not really calm but it is before a storm

**Author's Note:**

> hopefully I can update this semi regularly

“Shou-chan!” Hinata stumbled slightly as his sister collided heavily into him, clinging to him and hiding her face in his chest. He’d just arrived home from his jog and had barely gotten through the door when she’d tackled him.  
“Natsu? What’s wrong?” He asked, pulling her gently off him so he could take off his shoes and jacket. She didn’t move very far away from him and clung to his arm as soon as he was done.  
“It’s the TV.” Hinata sighed, something had scared her on TV it wasn’t anything serious. It wasn’t like his mom to watch shows that would scare Natsu though.  
“What was on TV, a scary movie or something?” Natsu shook her head and squeezed his arm tighter. He walked into the living room to see for himself.  
“No don’t!” Natsu tugged on his arm to try and stop him from entering the living room and pulled him close so she could whisper to him. “Mom’s being really weird.”  
Hinata pried her fingers gently off his arm and told her to wait in the hall if she was scared. Maybe mom was drunk and put on a scary program that Natsu saw and freaked out about Hinata thought as he walked into the living room. All the lights were off and the only light came off the TV which was showing some sort of emergency broadcast. His mother stared at the TV like she hadn’t noticed him come in. Hinata stood between his mother and the television.  
“Hey mom, Natsu’s really upset about something.” His mother didn’t move for a long time, her eyes remaining where they’d been glued to the television. After what felt like an eternity she blinked and tilted her head up to look at Hinata.  
“Oh Shouyou you’re home, how was school?” Her words were slow like she couldn’t remember what any of her words meant. Hinata stared at her for a long moment.  
“Mom I just got back from jogging I’ve been home for hours.” They stared at each other for a long time, long enough for Hinata to start to get restless before his mother responded.  
“Oh, I’m sorry I’m not feeling...very well.” She trailed off for a few seconds before starting up again. “Strangest thing happened at work.”  
“Yeah, tell me about it while I get you to bed, come on,” Hinata responded as he took his mother’s hands and pulled her off the couch. She was like a dead weight and stumbled like she couldn’t stand, Hinata slung her arm over his shoulder and whispered in her ear. “Mom are you drunk?”  
“Strangest thing happened at work this morning.” She repeated as Hinata half carried her into the hall where Natsu was cowering by the doorway. Hinata made eye contact with his sister and they made concerned eye contact before Hinata lead his mother toward her room.  
“Yeah, what happened at work?” He asked, this time deciding to just wait for her to tell him at her own incredibly slow pace. He didn’t get an answer until they’d made it all the way into her room and he’d deposited her unceremoniously on her bed.  
“My...My coworker bit me?” She said in a confused tone like she’d misheard someone else say it. She stared Hinata in the eyes for a long minute before slowly pulling up her sleeve to reveal where she’d stuck a bunch of band-aids on her forearm. It looked pink and swollen and she gawked at it like she’d grown an extra head. “Oh, it’s bad now.”  
“Uhh, just get some sleep now if it’s still bad in the morning we’ll call the hospital I guess.” Hinata really wasn’t sure how to react to this situation. Now that he thought about it, she had been very sluggish while making dinner and even slower while they were eating. She’d still been picking slowly at her food when he’d left for his jog. “Goodnight mom.”  
His mother didn’t answer and he closed the door. Natsu smashed into him again as soon as he’d left the room.  
“Shou-chan is mom gonna die?”   
“She’s fine, she’s just sick I think.” Hinata lied, he had no idea what was wrong with her. But what really mattered was making sure Natsu didn’t freak out and if that meant lying a little bit then so be it. “Did you take a bath yet?”  
“No.”  
“Well, do it now then.” He ushered Natsu to the bathroom before wandering into the kitchen. His mother’s plate was still on the table with most of her food abandoned on it he put it hesitantly in the fridge. He was worried about his mother, she never acted like this and her arm had been pretty swollen. He hoped it didn’t get infected. He’d call the hospital in the morning just in case, for the time being, he didn’t want to scare Natsu any worse. He hated seeing her scared. He walked into the living room where the television was still on. It was tuned into the news, something about oral infections, he didn’t pay much attention to it and shut it off. He sat on the couch and pulled his phone from his pocket, he had a one word reply from Kageyama that he’d been ignoring but decided to text him anyway.

I think my moms sick

why

Shes acting really weird I hope shes alright

did you watch the news?

No

theres an infection going around. makes people act weird. really contagious. might be that

Really??

yeah

I hope that’s not it. It sounds like it though :(

don’t let her bite you i guess

:/

Hinata dropped his phone back on his lap, he knew Kageyama wasn’t going to respond at this point unless his life depended on it. It was getting late at least, he’d put Natsu to bed and worry about all this tomorrow.  
Almost as if on cue Natsu stumbled into the living room and crawled onto the couch next to him. She was already in her pajamas. Good, he wouldn’t have to deal with wrestling her into them and forcing her to bed like she liked to make him do when he babysat.  
“You ready to go to bed Natsu-chan?”  
Natsu nodded and the two of them walked into their room. They technically had separate rooms but Natsu slept in his room on the guest futon so much it made more sense to say they just shared the room. Hinata got Natsu settled in and plugged his phone in before turning to leave.  
“Where are you going?” Natsu asked anxiously, sitting up and clutching the blanket to her chin.  
“I’m just gonna take a bath, I’m still all gross from my jog.” He waved to her before turning off the light and going toward the bathroom.  
She was asleep by the time he got back and crawled into bed. He told himself that everything would be okay, and repeated it until he fell asleep.

He woke up to his alarm beeping at him and put it on snooze. It was very early. He had to get up early to make it to school on time, what with having to bike through the mountains and all. He glanced over at Natsu to make sure his alarm hadn’t woken her up. Looking at her sleeping face reminded of him of what happened last night. He sat up and shut off his alarm. He had to check on his mom. For some reason, he was dreading it. He puttered around his room, getting dressed as slowly and quietly as possible. Once he was fully dressed he sighed and tiptoed out of his room and toward his mother’s room. He stood outside the door until his phone buzzed, making him jump. It was a message in the team group chat from coach Ukai that read ‘Schools canceled but come anyway it’s safer.’ Hinata didn’t know what that meant but was distracted by a noise coming from inside his mother’s room. He put his phone away and cracked the door open slowly so he could peer inside.  
His mother was on the floor next to her bed face down like she’d fallen off the bed. Hinata opened the door wider and took a half step closer but stopped when he was hit by an awful smell. It smelled like vomit, blood, and morning breath. He covered his nose with both hands and stumbled backward in disgust. The sound of his feet shifting the floorboards alerted his mother, who writhed on the floor and turned to face him shakily. If his hands weren’t covering his mouth he would have screamed. She looked emaciated, her eyes had turned a cloudy white and were sunken in and bulged out of her head. A trail of reddish brown drool trailed down her chin and stuck to the floor in slimy threads. She lurched towards him, tugging herself forward with her arms. She’d been laying on the injured arm, which had swollen up and festered overnight, leaving a huge crater of rotten flesh in her arm. It sloughed off completely when she tried to move it, the bone breaking like wet chalk, leaving half her forearm and hand to stain the carpet as she dragged herself forward.  
Hinata scrambled backward and slammed the door behind him. He had to block the door with something, he couldn’t let her out. He dry heaved into his arm and stood with his back against the door, his eyes watering as he tried to catch his breath. He sprinted to the kitchen and grabbed a chair before running back awkwardly and shoving it against the door. His phone buzzed again and he pulled it shakily out of his pocket. A few people had responded in the affirmative to Ukai’s text and he’d followed up with ‘There’s strength in numbers, so take anyone you can with you do NOT get anywhere near the mouth of anyone who’s infected.’  
Hinata took a shaky breath and closed his eyes for a moment before his phone buzzed again. It was from Kageyama this time.

your mom didnt bite you did she?

No

what about your sister?

Hinata stared at the text for a long minute. He remembered how Natsu had cowered in fear from their mother when he tried to talk to her. How she’d tried so hard to stop Hinata from going in the living room. He ran back to his room and shook Natsu’s shoulder.  
“Natsu? Natsu wake up did mom bite you last night?”  
“What?” She responded groggily.  
“Last night, mom didn’t bite you did she?”  
“No, are you trying to scare me? You sound like those people on TV.” She tugged the blanket to her chin.  
“The people on TV?”  
“Yeah, they said there was an infection that made people go crazy and try to eat people and that people get if from bites.”  
“Did they say it makes people fall apart?”  
“They said it makes people decay.” Hinata rubbed his face with his hands and pulled them through his messy hair before taking Natsu’s hands.  
“Natsu we have to go.”  
“What? Go Where?”  
“To my school, you just have to trust me okay?” They stared at each other for a few seconds before Natsu nodded and pulled herself out of bed. Hinata left her to get dressed and packed his bag, replacing his school supplies with things he thought he might need. Water, some food, and the first aid kit from the bathroom. He heard Natsu pause in the hallway, she must have noticed the chair against the door. He walked out to meet her. “Are you ready? We’re gonna ride there on my bike okay?”  
“Yeah.”   
They put on their shoes and jackets and went outside to the garage where Hinata stored his bicycle. The sun hadn’t risen yet, making it still dark and chilly outside. Hinata wasn’t usually out this early but drastic times called for drastic measures.  
“Okay, you’re just gonna stand on the back here on these things and hold on to my shoulders, got it?” Hinata helped his sister into place and kicked off towards Karasuno. The ride started out pretty uneventful, it was about as easy as he expected riding through the mountains on a bike before the sun rose with his little sister clinging to him would be, which wasn’t very but the unsettling lack of traffic was certainly working in his favor. His phone’s buzzing wasn’t working in his favor however, he suddenly remembered he’d left Kageyama hanging after he’d asked a question. “Hey, Natsu can you get my phone from my pocket?”  
“Which pocket is it?”  
“My right one.”  
“Which way is right?”  
“This way.” Hinata gestured with his right hand.  
“Okay.” Hinata slowed down some so she wouldn’t drop it. She pulled it out and held it against Hinata’s back. “You have a lot of texts.”  
“Can you read some for me?”  
“I can’t they have swear words.”  
“Just bleep them out or skip over the bad ones.”  
“Okay, Kageyama says: your sister didn’t, uh, effing bite you did she? Then he says: are you dead? Answer me dumb… butt. Then he says please don’t be dead.” Hinata giggled at his sister’s rendition of Kageyama’s texts. It was nice to know Kageyama was concerned about him.  
“Can you text him and say we’re on our way to the school right now?”  
“Okay.”  
Hinata sped up his pedaling again as they started to breach the top of the hill they’d been riding over, the sun was starting to rise and he could see the familiar shape of the town farther along on the other side. He considered speeding down the hill as fast as possible like he usually did but decided against it, not wanting to crash with his sister on board. He leaned forward as they started to pick up speed, he could see some people wandering around on the road farther down the hill. He squinted at them, they weren’t moving like his mother had been but that didn’t convince him that they were safe to ride within grabbing range of.  
“Shou-chan, Kageyama wants to know how close you are.”  
“Tell him we’re almost at Ukai’s store.” Hinata wrinkled his nose as he got a whiff of that awful smell from earlier, it set him on edge even if it had only been there for a second. He was glad Natsu was so diligent with his phone, hopefully it would keep her distracted the whole ride there.  
“Kageyama says he’ll meet us on the way.”  
“Oh cool.” Hinata stood on the pedals as they sped through the town and past Ukai’s store, he could see a figure farther ahead that looked like Kageyama, It was certainly walking like he did. “I think that’s him up there actually.”  
Natsu craned her neck to look over his shoulder before ducking back down behind him so the wind didn’t blow in her face. She’d never met Kageyama, only heard Shouyou’s stories about him and seen the occasional picture. He’d always seemed very scary to her, she hoped he wouldn’t be mean to her. Shouyou’s phone buzzed in her hand again, another message from Kageyama, she hoped this one didn’t have any swear words in it.  
“He wants to know if you can see him.”  
“Yup. Hold on tight I’m gonna wave at him.” Hinata swung his arm over his head and swerved to the left before getting back on track. There were a few cars parked on the side of the road and he made sure not to overcorrect himself into them. Suddenly a man lurched out from between two of the cars and grabbed at the front tire of Hinata’s bike. Hinata shrieked and tried to swerve out of the way but the man’s fingers dug into the prongs and tugged the wheel out from under them, several of his fingers twisted and snapped off with the force. Natsu hands were torn off her brother’s shoulders as they fell off the bike and skidded across the pavement.   
“Oh, son of a bitch.” Kageyama cursed as he watched the hidden zombie take out Hinata’s bike tire and send them sprawling across the hard pavement. He started sprinting toward them, Hinata had scrambled into action and kicked his bike at the zombie while he scuffled backwards away from it but his sister looked like she wasn’t moving. Hinata seemed to notice his sister’s condition and pulled her into his lap and was yelling something at her. It looked like she was crying, but more importantly the zombie was starting to crawl over Hinata’s bike towards them as well as several other nearby zombies being roused by all the noise they were making. “Hinata watch out!”  
Hinata’s head snapped up, suddenly realizing that both Kageyama and the man were much closer than they’d been when he’d fallen. He grabbed Natsu by the hand and pulled her along with him as he tried his best to run with his stumbling little sister in tow. She was bawling her eyes out and wasn’t going very fast at all.  
“Natsu come on we have to run!”  
“I wanna go home!” she wailed helplessly through her sobs.  
“We can’t go back home!” Hinata shouted angrily, yanking her arm to try and get her to move. She planted her feet stubbornly and tried to twist her arm out of her brother’s grip. It was like she was unaware of the obvious imminent danger they were in.  
“I wanna go home!” she yelled again. “I want mom!”  
“You can’t! Do you wanna die? Do you want mom to kill you, stupid? You have to RUN!” Hinata snapped, tears starting to spill from his eyes. Natsu screeched at him at covered her ears with her hands. Kageyama had reached them at this point and scooped up Natsu like a baby and started running toward Karasuno with her. Hinata ran after him as fast as he could. Natsu was still screaming and struggled in Kageyama’s grip but Kageyama was much stronger than her and squeezed her tightly to his chest. Hinata wiped his eyes roughly with the sleeve of his jacket as he ran. He really hadn’t expected Kageyama to be good with kids considering his awful personality and shitty attitude but it seemed like he was doing a good job keeping Natsu contained at least.  
“Quit squirming around you little bastard,” Ok that was more in line with what he expected. Hinata elbowed Kageyama in the ribs.  
“Hey watch your mouth.”  
“Shit, sorry.”   
“Dude!”  
Kageyama decided to keep his mouth shut as they ran toward the school. Hinata’s sister wasn’t very big, heavy, or strong but she was still doing everything in her power to try and make him drop her. She had every right to be upset, her mom was most likely dead and she’d just taken a pretty hard tumble onto the blacktop. She was sobbing and was trying to punch him in the chest, but he was holding her too tight for that. Hopefully she’d calm down once they got to Karasuno. He glanced over his shoulder, they’d put quite a lot of distance between themselves and the zombies at this point. They could probably stop running, the zombies weren’t very fast. He knew damn well they wouldn’t stop running though, they ran all the time, the fact that there was an actual danger to run made sure of that. He wished he didn’t have to hold Hinata’s sister, she was slowing him down and Hinata refused to just run ahead of him. At least they were almost at the school, they were past the point he’d gotten to before turning back to meet up with the Hinata’s. He was glad he’d done that, they might have died if he hadn’t. He shook that thought out of his head, no thinking about friends dying.  
Hinata finally sped up when they got to the school, running ahead to open the doors for Kageyama and Natsu. The building was cold and empty, their heavy breaths and footsteps echoing off the shadowy walls. Kageyama finally put Natsu on the ground and she sniffled as she clung to her brother’s arm again.  
“They’re meeting up in the gym,” Kageyama said after reading a message on his phone.  
“Oh okay.” Hinata looked dazed and exhausted. He stood in between Kageyama and Natsu as they all made their way to the gym in silence.


	2. Ground rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ukai has a hard time following his own rules. Shimizu makes some observations. Hinata brings a new meaning to the term overkill

“Is this everyone then?” Ukai ran his hand through his hair. This was much fewer people than he had expected. “None of your parents?”  
The small crowd of teenagers shuffled awkwardly. Shit, that was probably a sore subject right now. It looked like he was going to have to be the only adult, he wished Takeda would return his texts.  
“If we’re going to stay here shouldn’t we make sure there aren’t any zombies in the building?” Shimizu, always the voice of reason, thank God she’d pulled them out of that awkward situation.  
“Exactly, if this is anything like in the movies you should be able to stop them by destroying their heads. So we’re gonna need some things we can use to do that. There should be bats in one of the storerooms.”  
“Wait these are zombies?” Hinata looked awful, Ukai had been surprised he’d even made it, given how far away he lived. God knows how he managed to bring his sister along. “I thought it was a disease?”  
“Of course they’re zombies, dumbass. What else would they be?” Kageyama growled next to him. They’d walked into the gym together with Hinata’s sister in tow like nothing was out of the ordinary. He wasn’t sure how they’d managed that.  
“But aren’t they just...sick people?” Hinata’s face was pale, he looked like he was doing everything to hold back tears.  
“Hinata, those people will do everything in their power to kill you.” Hinata stiffened and stared at Ukai. “It’s probably better if you try not to see them as people anymore.”   
“Oh.” Hinata rubbed his forearm gently, a distant look on his face.  
“These things are dangerous, no one should go near them, even if it’s someone you know. You all understand?”  
The crowd made an unenthusiastic sound of approval. They decided it would be best to stay in groups all the time, and that their first priority was to make sure there weren’t any zombies in the school, as Shimizu had suggested. Ukai decided to take a group to go looking around the school. Natsu, Yachi, Shimizu, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima stayed back in the gym where it was mostly safe while Daichi, Sugawara, Asahi, Ennoshita, Nishinoya, Tanaka, Hinata, and Kageyama went with Ukai. He had originally intended to leave all the first years in the gym, but Hinata had begged him and Kageyama refused to stay if Hinata wasn’t staying.  
After finding the baseball team’s supply of bats, Ukai told the group that the most likely place that any zombies would be would either be one of the classrooms, the teacher’s lounge, or wandering the halls. After a very short deliberation, they decided to go to the teacher’s lounge first. Ukai lead the pack with his bat raised as they walked up the stairs and rounded the corner to the teacher’s lounge. He held out a hand to stop the rest of the group’s movement as he crept towards it. There was a thud as a figure stepped out of the teachers' lounge and stumbled forward before throwing out an arm and leaning against the wall. Ukai stood up straight in surprise, his bat dropping to his side.  
“Ittetsu? Are you alright, why didn’t you answer my texts?” He walked towards the other man, his arms outstretched. “What happened to your leg? Do you need help walking?”  
Takeda stared at him and shuffled towards him before pushing himself off the wall and falling into Ukai’s outstretched arms.  
“Woah, okay,” Ukai said, wrapping his arms gently around Takeda’s waist, his bat all but forgotten in his hand. Takeda stared unblinkingly over Ukai’s shoulder at the students blankly before slowly opening his mouth and sinking his teeth into Ukai’s shoulder. Ukai screeched in pain and tried to shove Takeda off him, but Takeda’s teeth held firm in his shoulder. Blood gushed down Ukai’s back and splashed onto the teacher’s cheeks as the flesh started to tear off in a bite-sized chunk. Takeda finally broke eye contact with the crowd of students as he swallowed the hunk of flesh and turned his attention to Ukai’s throat, going in for another massive bite that severed Ukai’s jugular vein and rendered his screams to choked gurgles. Ukai swayed and fell forward onto Takeda, who’s injured leg gave out under him with a wet squelching sound and a wave of foul odor and collapsed under him.  
Suga was the first to react, stumbling backward into the small crowd where he bumped into Tanaka, who instinctively grabbed at whoever he could reach to pull them back. That send the group of boys into action and they all ran in the opposite direction until they passed a set of fire doors, which Daichi pulled shut, hoping that would keep them trapped inside. He turned around, his hands covering his mouth and nose, he could feel himself shaking. The others looked about as bad as he felt or worse. Asahi leaned heavily on the wall with his hand over his mouth, his eyes watered as he tried not to throw up. Noya couldn’t keep himself still and paced back and forth with his hands on the back of his head whispering ‘What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.’ over and over to himself. Hinata looked like he was hyperventilating and bumped into Kageyama, who leaned against him to keep them both from falling over but never stopped staring at the wall. Tanaka had sunk to the floor and had his head between his knees with his arms wrapped around his legs, he was shaking but Daichi couldn’t tell if he was crying or not. Suga was definitely crying, his back was against the wall and he had one hand covering his mouth and the other clutching his chest. He felt like he had to do something or say something but nothing came out, he just stood there with his mouth open and hidden by his fingers. Noya punched the wall violently with an exceptionally loud ‘what the fuck’ before immediately going back to pacing and tugging his hair out. Hinata and Asahi both flinched at the loud noise. Daichi stared at the other boys slowly before making eye contact with Suga, who stumbled towards him and wrapped his arms around Daichi.  
“What are we going to do?” He sobbed into Daichi’s shoulder. Daichi coughed and held Suga tightly. He didn’t know what they were going to do. He hadn’t known what to do when he’d seen the footage of the people on the television in the hospital tearing at the doctors with their teeth. He hadn’t known what to do when his father had stumbled into the house with a huge bite wound on his face. He hadn’t known what to do when his mother tried to hide him in the bathroom with his younger brother and sister. He hadn’t known how to calm down his younger siblings when they heard their mother screaming. He hadn’t been able to do anything but run away when they were all torn away from him. He let his coughs turn to sobs against Suga’s shoulder.  
“We-we have to tell the others, right?” Tanaka stared up at them from the floor. His eyes were red and puffy from crying and his voice sounded weak.  
“Yeah,” Daichi responded, having finally found his voice. They were just going to have to do this without any adult supervision, they had no other choice. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Let’s go back and tell the others, then we can just figure out a plan from there.”  
The others seemed to agree to that and slowly pulled themselves into motion. Asahi helped Tanaka off the floor and let Tanaka lean on him gently as they started to walk back.  
“Are you okay? You look like you’re gonna hurl.”  
“I’ll be fine I think.” Tanaka gave him a worried look but didn’t push further. The group walked back to the gym in silence.  
Natsu got up and ran over to hug Shouyou as soon as the group got back. Hinata staggered around for a few seconds but hugged her back.   
“Uh, bad news guys,” Daichi said once everyone was in the gym. “Ukai-san got bitten. Don’t go near the teacher’s lounge the uh, the fire door’s closed for a reason.”  
“Fuck me, really?” Tsukishima said, shocked.  
“Yeah, it-it’s just us now,” Daichi said sadly.  
“What happened?” Yacchi asked, wringing her hands.  
“He found Takeda-sensei, I guess he didn’t realize he was a zombie, Takeda bit him on the neck,” Suga responded. Asahi dry heaved at the memory and Tanaka lead him to go sit down. Shimizu got up from where she was sitting on the floor and walked over to Daichi and Suga as the group dispersed.  
“What are we going to do about food?” She asked.  
“Fuck, I didn’t even think of that.” Daichi ran his hand over his face.  
“I thought we could split into groups and then go out and try to find things we need, like in houses and stores, things like that,” Shimizu said quietly, letting her eyes flick between Daichi and Suga’s faces. “I was going to bring it up to Ukai-san but…”  
“Yeah… That’s a good idea, Shimizu.” Suga said and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.  
“Did you think up how we’re going to split up?” Daichi asked.  
“Well, today I think it would be best if Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, and Nishinoya go. Hinata’s obviously trying to distract himself from something and it would be best if Natsu spends more time away from him, she seems really reliant on him right now so I think it would be best if we try to wean her off him early in case something bad happens. Being around Kageyama seems to calm him down some as well, and those two work well together anyways. But it wouldn’t be good if they were sent off alone so Nishinoya and Tanaka should be able to keep them in check without being too overbearing ah-” She covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry I started rambling.”   
Daichi and Suga gawked at her.  
“You could tell all that? You weren’t around them hardly at all,” Suga gaped at her. God, she was so smart.  
“Hinata’s very easy to read. Both of them are.” She gazed over at where Hinata was awkwardly introducing Natsu to the other members of the team.  
“Okay, I’ll let them know what’s going on,” Daichi said.

After being briefed on the situation, Noya, Tanaka, Hinata, and Kageyama decided together that they should go to Ukai’s store since it was fairly close and they were all very familiar with it. They passed several zombies on the way that were avoided easily by not walking near them. They reached Ukai’s store to find it locked. Fortunately they were able to get inside by boosting Noya through a window and having him open the door for them. They split into different aisles to cover as much as they could. Hinata worked his way up an aisle, filling his bag with snack food that could be prepared with little to no effort. He passed on to the next aisle, full of bottles of alcohol. Hinata skimmed their labels as he passed before he noticed Kageyama sitting on his knees at the end of an aisle by the back room, he had torn open a package or water bottles and was stuffing them in his bag so they were easier to carry. Hinata watched as a figure shambled out of the back room, an old woman he assumed to be Ukai’s mother, not that it mattered. What did matter was the large blood stain on her side and the greyish green tint to her skin and the hungry gleam in her pale, dead eyes and the fact that Hinata was the only one who saw her reaching towards Kageyama.  
“Kageyama!” He screeched, grabbing a bottle off the shelf and sprinting towards the zombie. He jumped over Kageyama’s head and tackled the old woman to the floor, where he smashed the bottle into her face repeatedly. The bottle broke on the second swing and the old woman made choked gurgling noises as the alcohol drenched her face. Hinata desperately swung the bottle again and again, his eyes blurred with tears that burned his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. His arm hurt from swinging it so hard but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was not letting this monster hurt Kageyama. Suddenly something grabbed his shoulders and he thrashed and swung around, weapon raised.  
“Dude, you got her, calm down.” Tanaka stared fearfully at Hinata’s violent response. “Are you alright?”  
“Huh?” Hinata blinked the tears out of his eyes and looked down at what he’d done. Blood and alcohol were everywhere, on the floor and shelves, splashed onto the nearby wall, soaked into the sleeve of Hinata’s jacket. The bottle in his hand was no more than just the shattered neck. The old woman’s face looked like it had gone through a meat grinder and part of her skull had caved in, revealing the brain matter that Hinata hadn’t slung across the room in his frenzy. Shards of broken glass and bone littered her face, sticking out of the exposed flesh. One of her eyes had ruptured and had started to ooze from the socket. Her mouth gaped extraordinarily wide, her jaw having been broken and twisted to one side, her few remaining teeth glinted up at Hinata from where they floated in the back of her throat. Hinata gagged and dropped the remains of the bottle as he scrambled backwards off where he’d been sitting on the old woman’s chest.  
“Hey, it’s okay calm down buddy.” Tanaka said as he pulled Hinata off the gory remains of Ukai’s mother. Hinata was having trouble standing so Tanaka pulled him close into his chest, pulling him into a hug. God, Hinata felt so tiny in his arms. “It’s okay you got her, she’s not coming back.”  
Hinata sobbed into Tanaka’s chest. It didn’t feel okay. He felt awful, his clothes were soaked and stank like zombies and old lady. His shoulder hurt, he had no idea how long he’d swung at her. Long enough that Tanaka had come to make him stop.  
“You did good Hinata, you kept all of us safe.” Noya said as he walked up and patted Hinata’s arm.  
“Here.” Kageyama added, pulling his hoodie off over his head. “You’re soaked, you don’t want to catch a cold.”  
Hinata pulled out of Tanaka’s embrace to take Kageyama’s hoodie before giving it back and pulling off his wet jacket and shirt and replacing them with Kageyama’s hoodie. It came down to his knees.  
“Thank you.” He said, wiping his eyes on the sleeve.  
“Thanks for not letting that thing kill me.” Kageyama said bluntly.   
“We should probably head back to the gym it looks like the sun’s starting to go down.” Noya said after glancing out a nearby window.  
“Yeah, they’ll be harder to avoid if we can’t see them.” Tanaka added. “Your bags all full?”  
The others nodded and they packed up quickly before heading out back towards the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact I got the idea for this fic from a dream I had. But in the dream Hinata and Kageyama always knew when there were zombies around the other one and they'd like text each other to let them know there were zombies. Kinda dumb but that's just how dreams are I guess.


	3. Things happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> time passes, they start to get used to the situation. Hinata is a strong big brother, Suga loses something important, Kageyama helps Hinata talk it out, Asahi has some confusing feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's pretty long whoops

When they returned to the gym, they found that the third years had been doing some serious planning in their absence. They’d rolled out the dry erase board that Ukai had used to draw out attack plans and had written on it things they’d need to survive. Hinata had hardly let his eyes focus on it when Natsu smashed into him, causing him to stumble sideways into Kageyama.  
“Woah, careful Natsu,” Hinata said, gently pushing her off. “Don’t knock me over.”  
“Shou-chan what happened to your clothes?” Hinata tensed slightly at her question but answered her confidently.  
“Well, I took out a zombie all by myself and it got all over my shirt so Kageyama gave me this to wear.” Natsu stared at him.  
“Really?”  
“Yeah! What, you don’t think I could do it?” Natsu shook her head slowly at him. “Well I definitely did, right guys?”  
“He did it was really gross,” Tanaka said, letting his bag slide off his shoulder and onto the floor with a plop.  
“Really messed up the floor too, she’s all over the store now,” Noya added, making a wide gesture with his hand. Natsu glanced at Kageyama, the only one who hadn’t said anything yet, who nodded at her.  
“Yeah,” he croaked. “It would have probably killed me.”  
“Woah.” Natsu stared up at her brother, finally convinced by Kageyama’s words.  
“Yeah, you’re big brother’s a total zombie slayer! You should be proud!” Hinata boasted, puffing out his chest.  
“Wait Hinata killed a zombie?” Suga piped up from where he stood by the dry erase board.  
“Yeah, he really went to town on her with a bottle of booze, bashed her head right in I had to pull him off cause she was already done for,” Tanaka said casually, but not without giving everyone the vague sense that he was bragging about his favorite underclassman. Suga and Daichi exchanged shocked looks with Shimizu. Sensing that he’d maybe gone a bit far with his description, Tanaka quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, we got food now so we should probably eat it right?”  
The group gathered around to eat, grabbing whatever they could get from the bags and sitting around on the floor. Shimizu filled the boys in on what they’d been planning more while they were gone.  
“The zombies aren’t very fast so we should be able to get the ones out of the school by getting their attention and just letting them follow us out of the building. I doubt there’s very many but they’re still very dangerous and we shouldn’t engage them unless it’s absolutely necessary.” She gave Hinata a meaningful look.  
“It was absolutely necessary! She was gonna kill Kageyama!” Hinata whined defensively.  
“I’m sure it was, but just remember you shouldn’t go looking for fights in the future just because you killed one.” Hinata deflated slightly at her words.  
“She’s right, that was just an old lady,” Noya said around a mouthful of crackers. “You might not be so lucky next time.”  
“That reminds me, is your shoulder okay? It looked like you were struggling with it earlier.” Tanaka asked Hinata.  
“It is kinda sore,” Hinata admitted, rolling his shoulder.  
“It’ll probably be worse after you sleep on it,” Shimizu said sympathetically. “We should probably try to bring back something we can sleep on so we aren’t sleeping on the gym floor.”  
The boys shifted slightly, they hadn’t even thought about where they were going to sleep.  
“Speaking of which, I’m fucking exhausted,” Kageyama said. A few of the others seemed to have settled down and were getting ready for bed. Or the closest thing they could get to bed.  
“Yeah lets it’s been a really long day,” Hinata added.  
After a few more minutes of settling down, Shimizu shut the gym lights off. It was much colder in the gym once the sun went down and they realized their best option would be to huddle together for warmth. Kageyama lay alongside Hinata and Natsu, using his Karasuno jacket as a pillow because Hinata was still wearing his hoodie. He couldn’t really blame him for taking it, his jacket and shirt had been absolutely ruined. Hinata had saved his life it was the least he could do to let him keep his hoodie. That wasn’t what was keeping him awake though. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened his contacts to find his mother. She hadn’t texted him in two days. He stared at the last messages she sent him.

The busses are down so I’m going to have to get a hotel room.

did you see the news?

I’m afraid that’s why the busses are down. Stay safe Tobio.

okay

He could think of a thousand reasons why she hadn’t texted him back that didn’t involve her being dead. Her phone could have died or been broken or lost somewhere. It could have been stolen, who knows what kind of thieves the zombie apocalypse had pulled from the woodwork. She was probably huddled up somewhere with a group of her co-workers just like he was with his teammates. He snapped his phone shut and put it back in his pocket. There was no point in crying over it, he could already hear someone in the gym crying as quietly as possible as to not disturb anyone else. It sounded like Asahi, but he couldn’t be sure. He rolled over and looked at Hinata. Hinata held his little sister, whose name was Natsu apparently, to his chest with his back to Kageyama. Kageyama stared at Hinata’s back. He had the thought that it would probably be warmer if he put his arm around Hinata. He didn’t want to risk waking him or his sister up though and decided against it before rolling over, determined to sleep despite the chill.

Asahi couldn't sleep, he couldn't stop thinking about Ukai and how he'd reached out for Takeda. Just like how his father had reached out for his mother, only to have her lash out and take a chunk out of his face. His eyes burned with tears, this was all too much. He covered his mouth to try and make as little sound as possible. He didn't think anyone was asleep but he still didn't want to risk waking anyone up with his crying. Noya rolled over to look at him. Great. Noya was usually the first person to fall asleep, he was probably keeping Noya awake.  
“Are you alright?” Noya whispered, scooching closer. Asahi sniffled and shook his head. He’d never been good with gore in horror movies and seeing it in real life was so much worse, his throat still hurt from when he’d thrown up earlier. Noya squeezed his arm gently. “Do you need to talk about it or do you just need to cry it out for now?”  
“I don’t know.” Asahi said, letting his fingers slide down his face to rest on his chin. “I don’t want to keep anyone awake.”  
“Dude I don’t think anyone's asleep yet,” Tanaka said, propping his head up on his hand to look over Noya at Asahi.  
“I mean yeah but they’re trying to sleep,” Noya argued, twisting so he could look back over his shoulder at Tanaka and hit him lightly with the back of his hand.  
“I’m sorry, I’m trying to be quiet.” Asahi sobbed quietly. Noya rolled back over to face him and pulled Asahi close, wrapping his around his chest and ducking his head under Asahi’s chin.  
“Calm down we’ll get through this, yeah?” Noya whispered into Asahi’s neck. Asahi blinked, slightly stunned by Noya’s sudden affection, only to be bombarded with even more as Tanaka slid closer and threw his arm over both of them, letting his fingers brush gently through Asahi’s hair.  
“We’re gonna be fine,” Tanaka said, giving him a warm smile over the top of Noya’s head. Asahi sniffled and nodded, letting his own arm slide over Noya to rest on Tanaka’s ribs. Tanaka gently brushed his thumb against Asahi’s jaw comfortingly. It was definitely working and Asahi stopped crying after a while, leaving them lay there in silence.  
“This is kinda gay, isn’t it?” Noya said, his voice muffled from being squished between the other two boys. Tanaka chuckled quietly.  
“Little bit yeah,” He said, bumping his chin against the back of Noya’s head.  
“It’s warmer this way.” Asahi added, tucking his chin into Noya’s hair. He was so exhausted he thought he could probably fall asleep just like this.

Tsukishima was the first to wake up the next morning he stared up at the ceiling of the gym. The gym had small windows so he couldn’t tell whether the sun had risen or not. He really didn’t want to move, he could tell that he’d have a stiff neck from sleeping on the gym floor but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep again. He looked around to confirm that everyone else was still asleep. Yamaguchi was still sleeping next to him. He was half curled up so he could use his arm as a pillow with his cheek squished against it making him drool on his arm. It would be cute if it wasn’t gross. Hinata and Kageyama were asleep back to back with absolutely no space between them and Natsu clinging to Hinata’s chest. Asahi, Noya, and Tanaka were packed tight against each other in some kind of deep sleep snuggle orgy, Tsukishima was amazed anyone could sleep like that. Daichi and Suga were asleep facing each other with Ennoshita back to back with Suga and Yachi and Shimizu were tucked away into the corner. He sighed and sat up, his stiff back cracking. Best use the toilets now, he wasn’t sure how long the water in the building would stay running. By the time he got back, a few others had started stirring and were digging food from the bags or talking quietly with each other.  
Noya had woken up and untangled himself from Asahi and Tanaka, leaving them to melt into the empty space he left between them so he could get something to eat. He chewed loudly on his granola bar and wandered back over to them. They’d both gravitated toward each other in his absence and now Tanaka lay nearly face down, Asahi’s arm being the only thing between his head and the floor. Asahi’s free arm was right where Noya had left it when ducked out from under it, draped across Tanaka’s waist. They looked so comfy Noya almost didn’t want to wake them up. He did anyway, leaving them to jostle out of each other's arms so they could get up and eat.  
After a while, everyone managed to get up and get themselves somewhat fed. Once everyone had eaten something they gathered together to help think of things that would make it easier to survive.  
“We should try and find something to sleep on. Sleeping on the floor can’t be good for us.” Ennoshita brought up first. The rest of the group mumbled in agreement.  
“Ukai did make a good point about making sure there are no more zombies in the school. Like I said before if we keep our distance we should be able to just lead them out.” Shimizu said, earning another mumble of agreement.  
“Still, I think we should try to get some weapons for self-defense, just in case,” Kageyama added, the memory of Hinata killing that zombie still fresh in his mind. A few people nodded. After a short silence, Tsukishima spoke up.  
“I thought… It might be a good idea to write a message on the roof. In case like a helicopter flew over.”  
“Oh like when someone’s stranded on an island and writes HELP on the beach in rocks?” Noya asked enthusiastically.  
“Uh, I guess.” Tsukishima hadn’t thought about it that way at all.  
“Why don’t we just sleep in the nurse’s office? There are beds in there.” Yachi spoke up.  
“Right now we don’t know if there’s zombies around that area, we wouldn’t be able to use it until we’re sure there aren’t any zombies there. Also, there’s not enough beds for all of us and I don’t think it would be very safe to split up like that.” Shimizu said slowly.  
“Yeah, I think it would be best if we just, you know, kept using it like an infirmary.” Daichi agreed. A few nodded but the group remained silent, slightly unsettled by the implications.  
“And we should stay in groups all the time when we go out,” Suga added.  
After splitting into groups, they decided that Natsu wouldn’t go out to find supplies because she was too young and that some people should stay with her in the gym at all times. Daichi, Asahi, Noya, and Tanaka decided they would go out to find supplies while the others started to work on getting the zombies out of the school.  
Luring the zombies out turned out to be much harder than anyone expected. The zombies tended to be completely silent until they started moving towards a target, so they had to work in pairs so one person could keep an eye out for unnoticed zombies. The zombies didn’t move very fast either and got distracted easily once they’d been following someone for a while. Stairs turned out to be a bigger obstacle than expected, the zombies tended to fall down stairs more often than not, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the zombies didn’t fall faster than people could walk down them and lash out as soon as they were in range. By the end of the first day, they’d had more close calls from zombies falling down stairs than anything else. The zombies also tended to get more aggressive once the sun went down for some reason so they decided to stop when it started to get dark out. They were sitting around the gym, talking idly or eating when the group that had gone out for supplies came back.  
“Guess what we fucking got!” Tanaka exclaimed, brandishing a fire axe over his head with both hands.  
“A fire axe?” Yamaguchi asked.  
“Huh? Well yeah this too, but we got a futon!” Tanaka pointed at Asahi, who was carrying it with both hands.  
“Sorry we got back so late, these things are kind of a hassle to carry.” Asahi said as he finally dropped the futon on the ground. “We took it from someone’s house.”  
“But we’ll definitely try and get more!” Noya added triumphantly.  
“We’re going to have to take turns using it though,” Daichi added. “I think Asahi should go first, he carried it all the way here.”  
“Oh! Ok yeah,” Asahi said glancing at Tanaka and Noya. “Thanks!”

Everyone got a better hang of luring zombies out of the building after a few days, so it was a bit of a shock to everyone when Suga burst into the gym on the fifth day clutching his finger.  
“Shit, someone get me the fire axe like right now,” Suga exclaimed. He’d been too hasty getting a zombie janitor out of the school and thought it would be safe to get behind him and give him a shove on the shoulder. The monster’s head had jerked around and snapped its teeth hard into the end of his middle finger. The bite throbbed painfully and his finger had gone cold up to his second knuckle by the time he got his free hand on the fire axe. He fumbled trying to use the axe left-handed in his panic. “Fuck, someone help me cut it off.”  
“Hold still,” Daichi said, taking the axe from Suga’s shaking hand. Suga braced himself against Daichi’s shoulder with his hand flat against the gym floor with the injured finger raised. Dachi brought the axe down as hard as he could and Suga screeched into his shoulder as the cold metal severed his finger. The axe hadn’t taken the finger off completely and it remained connected to Suga’s hand by his skin. Daichi winced sympathetically and held the finger against the floor.  
“Pull it back hard as you can.” He instructed. Suga did as he was told, twisted his hand off the floor to clutch it to his chest with a sob as the skin tore away. Daichi let go of the finger and wrapped his arm around Suga comfortingly. He watched the finger turn a sickly pale green and twitch on the floor before curling up into itself like a bug and remaining like that. Daichi grimaced at the sight. Suga whimpered into his shoulder, sucking on the stump of his finger.  
“Did you get it? Oh, ew.” Tanaka said, noticing the amputated finger on the floor. “I’ll… take that outside.”  
The others started to gather around Suga and Daichi as Tanaka stooped down to pick up the dead finger and go dispose of it outside.  
“Suga, can I look at it?” Yachi asked with concern in her voice. Suga turned and held out his arm to show her, his painful expression making the blood on his teeth visible. She winced at the sight. “Where’d the first aid kit get left?”  
No one there was particularly good at dressing injuries and because of the awkward shape of the wound and how bad his hand was shaking it took much longer than was expected and he ended up with bandages wrapped all around his hand and between his fingers. Suga didn’t want to stand up. He felt lightheaded and wasn’t sure if it was because of the panic or the blood loss or if he was somehow infected now despite all that hassle. He was still crying, he’d been crying since Daichi had taken the axe from his hand. Someone gave him water and he didn’t bother to even look at their face to see who it was. Daichi moved and helped him to his feet, leading him to lay down on a futon. They’d managed to recover a second one by now and Suga wondered faintly who would be sleeping on the other one.  
“Here, try and keep it elevated,” Daichi said, moving Suga’s arm so his hand stuck up in the air. “How-how do you feel?”  
“It fucking hurts,” Suga said through his teeth. He knew what Daichi had meant, did he feel like he was turning into a zombie? He honestly wasn’t sure. “My finger felt really cold. But it stopped when it got cut off.”  
Daichi stared down at him. He hoped that meant that they’d stopped it. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if Suga turned. Suga looked awful, he was pale and shaking and still had blood in his teeth despite trying to wash it away by drinking water. Daichi ran his fingers through Suga’s hair, pushing his bangs off his forehead.  
“Just get some sleep for now. Hopefully things will be better in the morning.”  
“Daichi?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Will you stay here with me?” Daichi swallowed, part of him did want to stay with Suga, he was in a lot of pain and clearly needed the support. But if he turned in the night Suga would probably try to kill him, then everyone else would have to deal with two zombies. He looked at the bloody, sloppily applied bandages on Suga’s hand. He sighed.  
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”

Kageyama was walking back to the closet to put the mop he’d been using to clean up the blood from Suga’s impromptu amputation away when someone grabbed his sleeve.  
“Hey, Kageyama can I talk to you about something.” Hinata’s voice was strained and quiet.  
“Sure let me put this away,” Kageyama responded. Hinata hovered close to him and fidgeted as he put the mop back in the closet. “What is it?”  
“I-uh, can we go somewhere?” Hinata glanced around and stared at the floor, wringing the too long sleeve of Kageyama’s hoodie he was still wearing between his hands. Kageyama furrowed his eyebrows at his odd behavior. He looked around, the sun hadn’t gone down yet but it looked like the others were starting to settle down, or maybe it was just that Daichi had put Suga to bed and was sitting on the futon next to him.  
“Y-yeah, like the clubroom?” Kageyama asked, Hinata nodded and turned away hurriedly towards the club room. They didn’t say anything until they’d left the gym and were climbing the stairs to the club room. “Do you even have the keys?”  
“It’s unlocked,” Hinata said, making his way to the door and pulling it open. “See?”  
“Okay, what’s this about? You’re acting really weird.” Kageyama said suspiciously as he walked into the room after Hinata, pulling the door shut behind them.  
“I just, I-” Hinata choked out before covering his face with both hands and letting out a sob and leaning forward to lean on Kageyama.  
“Woah, what?” Kageyama said, holding his hands up awkwardly as Hinata bawled into his chest.  
“I’m sorry I just,” Hinata gripped the fabric of Kageyama’s shirt tightly. “I didn’t want to cry in front of Natsu.”  
Kageyama relaxed slightly, that made sense. He stood awkwardly for a few seconds before put his arms gingerly around Hinata.  
“Okay. Yeah, that was pretty fucked up.” Hinata nodded against his chest and let his arms slide around Kageyama's waist. He hadn't expected Kageyama to hug him but it was definitely what he needed.  
“All of this is fucked up.” Hinata sobbed. “My mom tried to kill me, I had to lock her in her room. Her arm fell off it smelled so bad,”  
Kageyama blinked, he'd forgotten about Hinata texting him about his mother. It seemed so long ago now. Kageyama thought about his own mother, his phone had died days ago but he just knew his mother hadn't ever texted him back. Thinking about it made his eyes burn.  
“I...I think my mom's dead too.” Saying it aloud felt like getting punched in the throat. He squeezed Hinata tighter and dropped his head against his shoulder. Hinata's crying was contagious and Kageyama found himself sobbing quietly into the shorter boy's shoulder uncontrollably. They stayed like that for a long time, just holding each other and crying. After a while Hinata shifted in Kageyama's hold, turning his head so he could breathe easier. He'd left a wet spot on Kageyama's shirt from his tears and now he pressed his cheek against it. He felt better now that he'd gotten to talk about what had happened and cry about it some, everything had been so crazy and stressful these past few days. It had taken him a long time to realize that Kageyama had also started crying, he smiled.  
“You're so quiet when you cry Kageyama.”  
“Shut up, dumbass.” Kageyama said gruffly, but he didn't let go and the two stood there in silence, rocking gently back and forth until Hinata spoke up again.  
“We should probably go back.” He said with a sigh. “I don't know how long we've been in here.”  
Hinata pulled himself off Kageyama and rubbed his eyes before starting to walk around Kageyama towards the door.  
“Hey wait.” Hinata turned to look back at Kageyama who faltered slightly with his words. “I-you, uh, if you need to do this again it’s-you can, I'm okay with it.”  
Kageyama cringed at his own awkward wording but Hinata smiled at him.  
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Daichi was so on edge couldn’t sleep. He stared at Suga until his eyes stung and jolted fearfully whenever he moved. He knew he had every right to be scared, they had no idea if cutting off Suga’s finger would stop him from turning and if he did Daichi would certainly be the first target. Despite that, he still felt bad about it. Suga was his friend, he couldn’t just leave him alone when he was in so much pain. He hoped his empathy wouldn’t get him killed. He hoped Suga would pull through this and be okay, he didn’t know what he’d do if he lost him. Worse than the thought of Suga killing him in his sleep was the thought of Daichi being forced to kill him in self-defense. Daichi had watched Nishinoya, Ennoshita, Tanaka and even Shimizu kill zombies before, and he’d heard all the gory details of the one Hinata had killed, but he’d never killed one before. From what he’d seen it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. Even Noya had freaked out after killing one, dropping the shovel he’d been using as a weapon and slumping against Asahi, who had pulled him close until he calmed back down. Daichi didn’t want to imagine what it’d be like to have to kill someone he knew, especially if they were a zombie. Daichi jumped when Suga raised his arm, only to relax when Suga simply scratched his cheek and rearrange the jacket he had in a bunched up heap on his chest with his injured hand on top in an attempt to keep it elevated. Daichi let out a breath, he needed to think logically about this. He’d seen people who were infected, they were incredibly slow to respond to everything and would have trouble moving, they breathed weird and their bite wounds swelled up huge and would fester and rot and give off an awful smell. Suga hadn’t been acting like that, he’d seemed like he was in a lot of pain, maybe even in shock, but not like he was infected. Daichi couldn’t tell if his hand was swollen or not. Daichi squeezed his eyes shut, he was exhausted and really wanted to sleep. He decided to at least try to relax for a little while, and if Suga attacked him in the night he would scream as loud as possible, wake up as much help as he could. Yeah, that sounded like a plan, that way even if he got bitten the others would be awake. He’d just rest his eyes a little for now.

“Are you guys asleep?” Asahi whispered.  
“I’m trying to be,” Noya said, tilting his head back to bump it against Asahi’s face.  
“Not yet, why whats up?” Tanaka asked, picking his head up and resting his it on Asahi’s shoulder.  
“I’m worried about Suga is all.” Asahi muttered, squeezing Noya gently. Noya wriggled in his arms and rolled over to face him.  
“Yeah, we all are,” Noya said, repositioning himself so he was using Asahi’s bicep as a makeshift pillow. Asahi sighed and rolled over onto his back, letting Noya and Tanaka snuggle into his sides. Tanaka patted Asahi’s chest reassuringly.  
“I’m sure he’ll make it through this, he’s tough,” Tanaka said, shifting around until his head rested on Asahi’s shoulder. “That was so fucked up though. Did I tell you guys about his finger?”  
“No, what happened with his finger?” Noya asked, peeking up across Asahi’s broad chest at Tanaka.  
“Fuckin’ ugh, when I took it outside I just dropped it on the ground and it uncurled and like crawled away. Like this.” Tanaka dragged his hand across Asahi’s chest, pulling it along with his middle finger by moving the digit like an inchworm. Asahi shuddered and batted at Tanaka’s hand.  
“Ew, that’s freaking me out, stop it.” Asahi said.  
“No way that really happened dude,” Noya said, sliding his hand on to Asahi’s chest to join the others.  
“I’m telling you it did. I can even show you the gross blood trail it left.”  
“Yeah? Remind me in the morning, I wanna see it.”  
“I will.” Tanaka rubbed his thumb gently against Asahi's hand. Asahi shifted his arm and wrapped it around Tanaka's shoulders, letting his hand rest on Tanaka's waist. “But for real though I think-I think Suga’s gonna be fine.”  
“I hope so.” Asahi sighed, gazing down at Tanaka who rubbed his cheek gently against Asahi's chest and squeezed Noya's hand. Noya hummed quietly, having closed his eyes and started to drift off as soon as the conversation lulled.  
“I love you guys,” Noya mumbled sleepily. Asahi turned his head to look at Nishinoya, he could feel his cheeks warming up. The three of them had gotten very close and very intimate since they'd all started living in the gym, they'd been unusually open with their feelings around each other and had slept together while spooning every night but wasn't that going a little too far? Noya had no reaction to Asahi's embarrassment and went right on trying to sleep.  
“Mmhm love you too,” Tanaka responded, giving Noya's hand another squeeze. “Go to sleep for now, I’ll suck your dick or whatever tomorrow.”  
“Yeah? I’ll hold you to that.” Noya said.  
“Wait, what?” Asahi finally managed to sputter out.  
“Don’t worry I’ll get yours too, okay? Goodnight.” Tanaka said, snuggling his cheek into Asahi’s chest.  
“I… can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” Asahi admitted, staring up at the ceiling.  
“Honestly? I don’t either.” Tanaka said. “It doesn’t really matter, go to sleep.”  
Asahi frowned, that hadn’t cleared up his confusion at all. He sighed, at least he was less anxious now, these two were always good at making him feel better. After a short while of definitely not thinking about Tanaka sucking his dick, he was able to fall asleep.

Suga woke up to his hand throbbing in pain. It took him a few seconds to get his bearings and realized his hand had fallen off his jacket when he’d rolled over. He repositioned it and stared up at the ceiling. The sun had come up just enough that a tiny amount of light had started to shine through the small gym windows. Holy shit he’d survived the night. His hand felt like it was on fire but he was alive. He hadn’t turned in the night and tried to bite anyone. His face split into a grin as he giggled quietly to himself. The giggles quickly turned into manic laughter. He knew he was probably waking up the others but he didn’t care. He ran his good hand through his bangs as his laughter dissolved into crying. He didn’t remember stretching his bad hand straight up into the air but there it was and he half laughed-half cried at it. His remaining fingertips were shaking and he'd bled through the bandage. Someone asked him if he was okay. Daichi most likely, seeing as how he was the closest. Suga turned to stare up at him, his tears sliding down his cheeks.  
“I couldn’t be better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suga losing his finger wasn't supposed to be all that important but it ended up kinda being the focus of this chapter huh. whoops


	4. loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suga gets into a bad habit, Yamaguchi has a hard time, Hinata makes a promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is mostly about Yamaguchi !

“Have you guys seen Suga around?” Daichi asked.  
“I think he’s up by the clubroom,” Yamaguchi responded. Daichi frowned, what was he up to? He made his way out to the clubroom to see for himself. It had been about two weeks since he’d lost his finger and now he seemed to be spending a lot of time out on his own. It made Daichi worried, to say the least. It was starting to get chilly during the day as well and Daichi stuffed his hands into his pockets as he climbed the stairs to the club room. Daichi slowed as he reached the top of the stairs where Suga stood leaning on the railing across from the clubroom, with a cigarette clutched awkwardly in his hand.   
“Hey,” Daichi said hesitantly.   
“Oh, hey,” Suga responded, blowing out a breath of smoke. Daichi walked over to stand next to his friend. They stared out at the schoolyard in silence, watching the handful of zombies that hung around the school stagger around as the sun started to make its way into the lower part of the sky.   
“Since when do you smoke?” Daichi asked, glancing over at Suga who sighed out a cloud of smoke.  
“Since about 8 days ago.” He repositioned his hand around the cigarette, it was pretty difficult to hold without the use of his middle finger.  
“Oh.” Daichi didn’t know what to say. Part of him felt like he should scold Suga for taking up such a damaging habit but if it helped him cope with having a missing a finger maybe it wasn’t all that bad.   
“Did you come up cause you were worried about me?” Suga asked, glancing over at Daichi with a smirk. “Or do you need something from the clubroom?”  
“Oh I uh, yeah I came up here to check on you.” Daichi stammered, his cheeks flushing slightly.   
“I’m fine Daichi, I just come up here to smoke.” Suga huffed. “Someone keeps coming up here and moving stuff around in the club room though, guess it's not you though, I don’t know who it is.”  
“It seems like you’re gone all the time though, do you really smoke that much?” Daichi asked, ignoring Suga’s attempt at trying to change the subject.  
“No.” Suga took another long drag off his cigarette and blew it out completely before speaking again, “I been spending time reading in the library, and I helped Natsu and Yachi with the roof.”  
“The library?”  
“Yeah.”  
“What have you been reading about?”  
“Medical stuff.” Daichi stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate. After a long pause, he realized Suga wasn't going to elaborate. Daichi sighed and looked back out at the schoolyard.  
“Is that Yamagucci?” He asked, squinting down at the one figure that wasn't staggering around.  
“Yeah, he usually tries to lead the zombies away from the doors around this time of day. Makes it easier for people coming back carrying stuff y'know?”  
“Oh, yeah, that's nice of him,” Daichi said, watching as Yamagucci waved at one of the zombies to get its attention.  
“Well, I'm gonna head inside. The others should be getting back soon.” Suga said, grinding the end of his cigarette out on the railing before chucking it over the edge and making his way back towards the gym with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. Daichi sighed and followed him, it was starting to get late and for some reason the zombies got more active after the sun went down. He didn’t know what he expected to gain by coming to talk to Suga but he thought it should have been more than what he got. Suga had been so cold to him recently, he didn’t know if it was from the stress of losing his finger or just the stress from the steadily growing crowd of zombies and the recent shortage of food. Daichi wanted to say more, he wanted to ask if Suga was really okay, if they were really okay. He’d noticed how close the others had gotten to each other. It was hard to ignore how often Hinata and Kageyama snuck off together to do God knows what, or how close together Yachi and Shimizu slept, or whatever was going on with Asahi, Tanaka, and Noya. Daichi watched Suga’s thin frame as he made his way towards the gym, he didn’t know if that’s what he wanted from Suga or not. Thinking about it made his head spin and kind of made him want to throw up. He just wanted his friend back, why did everything have to be so awful and complicated? He sighed, it was his turn to sleep on one of the three futons so he decided to try his best not to think about it too hard. 

 

Yamaguchi frowned as he sifted through a bag of supplies trying to find tape for Tsukishima’s glasses. This was the third time they’d broken since they'd started living in the gym but the first time Tsukishima hadn’t been able to just pop the lens back in. This time the frame had snapped and needed to be taped together, another would be easy fix if he could just find the damn tape. Unfortunately, Suga had been bringing back a lot of weird supplies recently and making it hard to find anything else.  
“Can we even drink this legally?” Yamaguchi asked, pulling a bottle of alcohol out of the bag and staring at it. Tsukishima turned from the bag he was digging through to squint at it.  
“Not like we’d actually get in trouble for it.” Tsukishima said turning back to his bag. “Who’d stop us, the zombies?”   
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Doesn’t explain why it’s here though.” Yamaguchi said. “Ugh, sorry Tsukki I’m not having any luck finding any tape.”  
“I’m not either,” Tsukishima grumbled, leaning back on his hands.  
“I think there might be some in the club room? It’s the stuff to wrap fingers though so it might not work as well.”  
“I’ll take anything at this point,” Tsukishima said, grabbing his glasses off the floor and standing up.  
“Who’s out right now, do you know?” Yamaguchi asked as he lead the way to the club room.  
“Yachi, Shimizu, and Ennoshita I think,” Tsukishima answered.   
“Just those three? Where is everyone then?” Yamaguchi asked, glancing behind them at the near-vacant gym as he pushed open the door.   
“Hinata’s in the library with Suga. He said that’s where Natsu likes to do those coloring books Tanaka brought back. The king’s probably there too, he never leaves Hinata alone.”  
“Right, uh, what about Tanaka, Noya, and Asahi?”  
“As long as they’re not fucking in the club room I don’t give a shit honestly.”  
Yamaguchi giggled at the response but felt a wave of dread hit him as they made their way up the stairs. Suddenly he had to worry about whether or not he was about to walk in on a gay threesome. His footsteps slowed as they approached the door.  
“Doesn’t sound like anyone’s inside,” Yamaguchi said loudly, just in case someone actually was inside, before opening the door with a wince. Thankfully no one was inside and Yamaguchi was able to walk in without seeing anything unsightly. “I think there’s some in one of the lockers.”  
After a few minutes of looking, they were able to find a roll of tape that Tsukishima used to fix his broken glasses.  
“Alright let’s head back,” Tsukishima said after putting them back on. Yamaguchi laughed at the sight of the lopsided glasses on Tsukishima’s face. “Shut up I know they look stupid.”  
“Sorry, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said but continued to giggle the whole way back to the gym.

 

Things had started to change in weird ways. Kageyama had never been the biggest fan of change and preferred doing things the way he liked them best and letting everyone else adapt around him. Now all of a sudden he had to change because everything around him had changed so much so quickly. He had to cut back on eating because the only food they had was shitty gas station junk food he had to share with twelve other people. Suddenly there were two Hinata’s and they both answered to Hinata so he’d have to specify which one he was talking to even though he always called Natsu by her first name just like everyone else. Suddenly he had to watch his language around Hinata because Natsu was almost always with him and she didn’t like swearing. He had to keep track of when it was his turn to sleep on a futon or on the gym floor now. And on top of that, he had to deal with the constant overwhelming threat of the hoards of the undead that stood around outside.  
At least he could still play volleyball, even if it was much less often and only ever with just Hinata. No one else seemed to have the energy to play anymore and putting the net up was a hassle. He could always count on Hinata though, not even malnutrition could kill that guy’s energy. He’d almost pissed himself with excitement when Kageyama had asked if he wanted to spike some tosses.   
Kageyama had never been the best at reading other people emotionally but he’d never had that problem with Hinata, maybe it was because he was so expressive. At any rate, he could tell when Hinata was off his game and needed some time away from babysitting his little sister. Hinata would start talking less and when he did he’d be short tempered. He didn’t like being mean to Natsu. At least she didn’t cling on him constantly anymore now that she’d gotten to know the others better. When he got too stressed he’d ask Yachi, Shimizu, Tanaka or Daichi to watch her for a little while, then he’d come to Kageyama and quietly ask to go to the club room. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he’d just talk about what was bothering him, sometimes he’d just hang off Kageyama and make frustrated noises. They always ended up hugging and Hinata had even fallen asleep once while they sat on the floor in Kageyama’s arms. And he was hugging Hinata now while Hinata rhythmically headbutted Kageyama in the chest out of what was probably frustration, Kageyama hadn’t asked. Of all the weird changes this was the one he was the most okay with.  
He was pulled from his thoughts by Hinata suddenly squeezing him tight enough to make Kageyama grunt before pulling away.  
“Okay I think I’m good now,” he said, leaning back slightly to stretch his neck. Kageyama furrowed his eyebrows slightly, they hadn’t been there that long, didn’t Hinata want to stay there longer? It took Kageyama a few seconds to realize Hinata hadn’t moved because Kageyama was still holding him around the waist and Hinata was staring up at him. “Kageyama?”  
“Oh, yeah sorry,” Kageyama said, releasing the shorter boy and rubbing his neck. “Are you sure, it hasn't been that long?”  
“Do you want me to stay longer?” Hinata asked, leaning onto the taller boy’s chest with a half smile. “I can if you want. I’ve got nowhere to be.”  
“Uh,” he hadn’t considered that he could just ask Hinata to stay longer. “I, yeah, just a little longer.”  
Hinata smiled and sank back against Kageyama, letting his arms slip back into place around his chest and rubbing his cheek gently against the taller boy. Kageyama sighed and rested his chin on top of Hinata’s head. If anything good had come out of the mass outbreak it was these moments he could spend with Hinata. He wondered sometimes what Hinata thought about him. Before the outbreak, he would have guessed that Hinata thought he was scary, but still enjoyed his company somewhat and liked playing volleyball with him. But now he wasn't so sure, they spend a lot of time being so physically close and there were much scarier things out there now. There was no way he could ever bring himself to ask, or to tell Hinata about how he felt, for now, he’d just enjoy the moments as they came.

 

Yamaguchi waved his bat in front of a zombie’s face, making it gurgle and stagger forward. It was a middle-aged man who had been one of the janitors that turned in the school and been lured out. Yamaguchi had walked him around the school plenty of times, he always managed to find his way back to the gym. Maybe he could tell there were people alive in there Yamaguchi thought. If anything he could probably hear them talking inside or smell them. That was probably why there were so many zombies hanging around the school now that he thought about it, Yamaguchi glanced around, there had to be at least twenty or more of them at this point and they certainly hadn't all come from inside. He was jostled back into reality by the janitor tripping over his own feet and falling over with a loud crunch. He’d landed on his side hard enough to bounce slightly and now lay face up, stiff and unmoving, his pale eyes vacant. Yamaguchi stared down at him. Was he dead? Zombies didn't usually die from falling over. He prodded the zombie’s chest with his bat. No reaction. Yamaguchi leaned over him and waved his hand in front of its face.   
The things pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks and it jerked upward suddenly. Yamaguchi screeched as it’s teeth sunk into the side of his hand, just behind the knuckle of his pinky finger. Yamaguchi thrashed his arm back and forth, trying to get the zombie to release him. The zombie growled and bit down harder, shaking its head back and forth like a dog and chewing on the flesh as blood dribbled down his chin. Yamaguchi fell forward, his knee landing on the things chest as he used his free hand to swing his fist at the things head, punching it again and again in a panic. It wasn’t working, the monster refused to let him go despite Yamaguchi's beatings. He could feel the zombie’s teeth grinding against the bone and slicing the meat of his hand. He needed to try something else, he grabbed it’s head, digging in his nails and trying to pry it off. His thumb stabbed into the thing’s eye with a sick crunching sound, making it scream and writhe under him. Yamaguchi took the chance to pull his hand out of its hold. He tried to get away as fast as possible, but his thumb had gotten stuck in the thing’s eye socket and he had to yank it out as hard as possible before staggering backward and running back into the gym.  
He burst inside, sobbing in pain and clutching his dead hand against his chest. His hand was numb and his arm was cold halfway up his forearm and he could see the white bone shining up at him from the gaping bite wound. People were yelling, running around, asking him questions, telling him to do things. Someone grabbed him and shoved something into his uninjured hand.  
“Drink as much of this as you can.” Suga commanded before turning away and continuing to give orders. “Daichi, give me your belt. Tanaka, give the axe to Asahi he’s stronger than you are.”  
Yamaguchi stared at the bottle in his shaking hand. He’d never had more than a swallow of alcohol to taste before. The smell burned his sinuses. Drink as much as you can? That probably wasn’t going to be very much, he thought as he brought the bottle to his lips. He held his breath and started chugging. It tasted awful, he could feel it spilling all over his chin.   
“Yamaguchi, you’re arm’s gone cold right? Where does the coldness stop?” Suga was right in front of him again, holding what must have been Daichi’s belt. Yamaguchi lowered the bottle from his mouth and coughed a few times before looking down at his arm. It looked awful, his hand had started to swell and his fingertips had taken on a greenish grey color. He gawked at it in silence for a few seconds, shocked at how awful it looked. “Yamaguchi! Where’s it stop being cold?”  
“My elbow.” He blurted. Suga winced and wrapped the belt around his arm, just beneath his shoulder.  
“Okay sit down, keep drinking.” He said, pulling the belt as tight as possible around his arm. “Daichi, come here and pull this as tight as you can.”  
Yamaguchi tried to focus entirely on his drinking as Daichi pulled the belt tight enough to make the fingers he still had feeling in tingle. The alcohol was making him drool, and he put the bottle down on the ground. He felt like he was dying. Someone grabbed his good hand and pulled his head onto their lap.  
Tsukishima held Yamaguchi’s head so he couldn’t see what was about to happen to his arm. Asahi looked like he was about to cry as he shakily raised the fire axe above his head.  
“I can’t,” He said, shaking his head and lowering the axe. "I can't do it."  
“You have to,” Suga said, staring up at Asahi from his place on the floor where he held Yamaguchi’s damaged hand stretched away from his body.  
“You can do it, just take a deep breath and do it Asahi,” Daichi said encouragingly through his teeth as he held the makeshift tourniquet tight around Yamaguchi’s arm. Asahi squeezed his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths before bringing the axe above his head and swinging it down.  
Yamaguchi screeched in pain as the axe dug an inch into his bicep. Asahi yanked the axe back, spraying blood all over the floor. He was going to have to hit much harder if he was going to break through the bone. He swung down again, the axe sinking into Yamaguchi’s flesh with a thunk. Yamaguchi writhed in pain and Tsukishima grabbed him tighter to stop him from getting away. Asahi’s hands were shaking as he brought the axe down a third time. He missed, the axe landing too far down his arm, creating a second crater in Yamaguchi's bicep.  
“Damn it.” He swore as he pulled the axe out. He hated this, he hated it so much. Looking at Yamaguchi’s arm made his stomach lurch but if he didn’t look he’d miss again and this would take even longer and Yamaguchi would end up suffering even more than he already was. Suga tugged Yamaguchi’s arm harder, making the axe wound open, revealing the bone and muscle and causing even more blood to shoot from his severed arteries. Asahi gagged at the sight, his eyes watering. He had to power through this for Yamaguchi’s sake. He brought the axe down hard, wincing as the blade connected with the bone and blood splattered onto his legs. Yamaguchi was hyperventilating between sobs in Tsukishima’s lap. Asahi swallowed hard as he glanced at Yamaguchi’s shuddering body before steeling himself and swinging the axe down into his arm again.  
It felt like hours had passed by the time Suga finally was able to pull the twitching limb away from Yamaguchi’s body. The arm’s fingers twitched erratically before forming a fist and curling into itself on the floor. Asahi staggered backward, the axe dropping to the floor beside him. His arms felt like jelly and he knew he was moments away from vomiting, he wanted to wipe the tears from his eyes but he knew his hands had to much blood on them to do that. He turned to Tsukishima who still held Yamaguchi in his lap. Asahi’s eyes widened as he suddenly realized that Yamaguchi was lying silently in Tsukishima’s arms.  
“He passed out,” Tsukishima said after holding his fingers to Yamaguchi’s neck for a few seconds. Asahi huffed and pressed his forearms against his face.  
“God, I thought I killed him.” He choked out.  
“He’ll be okay if anything you saved him Asahi,” Suga said as he started to wrap Yamaguchi’s arm in a bandage.  
“Asahi, go throw up we’ll take care of him.” Daichi said as he helped Suga apply pressure to try and stop the ungodly amount of blood loss. Asahi turned away and started to walk towards the nearest bathroom. He had made it about halfway across the gym when someone bumped into his arm.   
“Come on big guy, let’s get you cleaned up,” Noya said, letting his forehead rub against Asahi’s shoulder.  
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Asahi said. He was doing everything in his power not hold down his vomit. Tanaka came up on his other side and rubbed the back of his neck.  
“You did good Asahi, that was really brave.” Asahi couldn’t respond to Tanaka’s compliment, he nodded and walked faster, covering his mouth with his forearm. He was glad they were both there because he felt like he was going to pass out and the last thing he needed was to faint and end up choking on vomit.  
Asahi stumbled into one of the bathroom stalls and dropped to the floor in front of the toilet, not bothering to close the stall door before retching violently. Tanaka followed him to the floor, gathering up his long hair behind his head so it wasn’t in his face. Asahi vomited until tears streamed down his cheeks and he sagged back into Tanaka’s arms with a weak sob. They sat on the floor together in silence until Noya joined them in the stall, prodding Asahi’s head with a water bottle which Asahi took and drank rapidly. Tanaka frowned at the blood that was starting to dry on Asahi’s hands and smeared on the condensation on the outside of the bottle.  
“Come on, you should get cleaned up.” He said, nudging Asahi with his head and getting up so he could help Asahi to his feet. Asahi flushed the toilet before leaving the stall and walking to the sink to clean himself.  
Noya jumped up to sit on the sink next to where Asahi was washing the blood off his hands.  
“Aw, you got blood on your face. Hold still a sec let me get it.” Noya said, leaning over to grab a paper towel from the dispenser and getting it wet before holding Asahi’s jaw and scrubbing his cheek roughly. He held Asahi’s face still in both hands to see if he got it all off. “You look terrible.”  
“Thanks,” Asahi droned, leaning forward and letting his cheeks press against Noya’s hands. The two of them shared a long look before Noya pulled Asahi into a kiss. Asahi immediately pulled back. “Dude, I just threw up.”  
“Yeah, didn’t really think that through, my bad,” Noya responded with a grimace, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Asahi sighed affectionately and let his forehead press against Noya’s for a few seconds before letting his head slide down to rest on Noya’s shoulder.  
“I really thought I killed him,” Asahi whispered. Noya wrapped his arms around Asahi tightly.  
“He’s gonna be fine,” Tanaka said reassuringly, leaning on Asahi’s back and hugging him around the middle, his cheek squished against Asahi’s shoulder blade. Noya let his fingers glide across Asahi’s back and up onto Tanaka’s face and through his hair. They’d been there so long that Tanaka’s hair had started to grow out and was just long enough for Noya to run his fingers through. Tanaka looked up at Noya with a soft smile. “You gonna try to kiss me too?”  
“Yeah, c’mere,” Noya said, leaning forward to kiss Tanaka gently and squishing Asahi in between them. Asahi shivered slightly at the sound of the two boys making out in his ear. Noya slid his fingers into Asahi's hair and broke away from Tanaka, resting his head against Asahi's.  
“I love you,” Tanaka said, turning his head down to kiss Asahi’s neck. Asahi hummed quietly and slid one of his hands down off Noya in favor of holding Tanaka’s hand against his tummy.  
“I love you too, both of you,” Asahi whispered, not wanting to speak too loud for fear of upsetting his throat. He lifted his head off Noya’s shoulder and Noya kissed his temple. “We should probably head back though.”  
“Yeah, I wanna see how Tadashi’s doing.” Noya said, placing another kiss on Asahi’s cheek and starting to slide off the sink. Asahi straightened up, rubbing his eyes and taking a step back.  
“Me too,” Asahi sighed. Tanaka squeezed his hand before leading the trio out of the bathroom toward the gym.  
They returned to the gym to find that Yamaguchi and Tsukishima weren’t there.  
“They’re in the nurse’s office, I think it’d be best for Yamaguchi to sleep on an actual bed for a few days at least and he shouldn’t be left alone so Tsukishima’s with him,” Suga explained as they entered.   
“He’ll be okay though, right?” Asahi asked, slight panic in his voice. Suga frowned sympathetically.  
“He should be.” Asahi deflated slightly at his words. “All we can do for now is wait.”  
Asahi sighed and sank onto the floor where he was quickly joined by Tanaka and Nishinoya. He was exhausted and his arms were sore. At least he didn’t feel like he was about to throw up anymore, and at least he had Tanaka and Noya to get him through this.

 

Yamaguchi collapsed onto the bed in a pile, managing to keep his amputated arm above his head and simultaneously not spilling any alcohol from the bottle he had a death grip on, which would have been more impressive if it wasn’t nearly empty. Tsukishima sighed and sat on the side of the bed next to Yamaguchi. Getting Yamaguchi all the way to the nurse’s office had been exhausting and difficult. Yamaguchi was drunk and half-conscious and just barely coherent enough to stand but couldn’t walk by himself. Tsukishima had slung his arm around his shoulder and walked with him as he stumbled and collapsed to the floor and needed to be lifted and herded in the correct direction. He’d considered just picking Yamaguchi up bridal style and carrying him, but decided against it, it would be too awkward to keep his injured arm elevated with Yamaguchi refusing to release the bottle of alcohol he was carrying. Tsukishima watched as Yamaguchi attempted to drink more without sitting up and spilled alcohol all over his face, coughing and sputtering as it went in his nose and down his windpipe.  
“Lay off that a little,” Tsukishima said, taking the bottle out of Yamaguchi’s hand and placing it on the floor. Yamaguchi whined and tried to sit up but Tsukishima pushed him back down on the bed.  
“Suga told me to drink as much as I could,” Yamaguchi complained, struggling against Tsukishima’s hand on his chest to try and sit up again.  
“Don’t be stupid, you’re going to give yourself alcohol poisoning.” Tsukishima pushed Yamaguchi down again. “Besides, it’s late you should get to sleep.”  
“Tsukki don’t leave.” Yamaguchi cried, clinging to the arm that still held him down on the bed.   
“I’m not going anywhere.” Tsukishima snapped. Yamaguchi blinked up at him and sniffled. Tsukishima sighed and gathered up an extra pillow and jacket to keep Yamaguchi’s arm somewhat elevated as they slept. He walked to the far end of the room and shut off the light before walking back to the bed and sliding in next to Yamaguchi.  
“Goodnight Tsukki,” Yamaguchi squeaked weakly.  
“Goodnight.” Tsukishima echoed.

Tsukishima was jolted awake by Yamaguchi screeching as his arm slid off the bed. He jolted upright and tugged Yamaguchi’s body back against him a bit more roughly than he intended, making Yamaguchi wail louder as his arm was jostled around. Tsukishima made shushing noises as he shifted Yamaguchi around to face him and put his stump arm on his shoulder as gently as possible. Yamaguchi jerked his head forward and bit Tsukishima’s shirt on the shoulder with a muffled sob. Tsukishima hissed in shock and grabbed the back of Yamaguchi’s shirt, his entire body tensing up but didn’t pull him off. After a few seconds, Yamaguchi pulled himself off and tucked his head against Tsukishima’s chest.  
“Sorry.” He choked out between sobs. Tsukishima huffed out the breath he’d been holding, his shoulders relaxing. He knew Yamaguchi wasn’t a zombie, he wouldn’t be crying if he was. He’d just needed to bite down on something to distract him from the pain, it was a reflex. Yamaguchi coughed into his chest. “Tsukki, I’m sorry, it just hurt. Don't be mad at me.”  
“It’s fine,” Tsukishima answered, realizing he hadn’t responded. He released his grip on Yamaguchi’s shirt and rubbed his back slowly. “Just go back to sleep.”  
Yamaguchi’s breath hitched multiple times as he buried his face in Tsukishima’s neck. Tsukishima grimaced, they were chest to chest with their arms thrown around each other now, needless to say, it was very intimate. His face felt warm, this was much more intimate then he was used to. Having Yamaguchi suddenly bite his shoulder and then nuzzle his face into Tsukishima’s bare neck had definitely stirred something in him. He just hoped Yamaguchi wouldn’t notice or at least have the courtesy not to say anything about it. Yamaguchi shifted slightly against him, moving his legs to get closer and Tsukishima winced, he could definitely feel it now. Tsukishima silently begged Yamaguchi to just go back to sleep. Yamaguchi shifted closer again hesitantly.  
“Tsukki?” Fuck.  
“Don’t.” Tsukishima blurted. Yamaguchi’s shoulders tensed momentarily but then relaxed as he pushed himself closer. Tsukishima suddenly regretted sleeping by the wall because now he was trapped against it with Yamaguchi trying to kiss his neck. God, why did he have to be such a persistent, horny drunk?  
“Tsukki,” He said again, his voice coming out a slurred groan against Tsukishima's neck and making him shiver as his breath washed over the blonde’s skin. Tsukishima ran his hand through Yamaguchi’s bangs and pushed his head back off his neck to glare at him. Yamaguchi stared back at him, his wide eyes still puffy and bloodshot from crying. They stayed that way for a few seconds before Tsukishima sighed and pulled Yamaguchi toward him to kiss his forehead. Yamaguchi made a surprised sound in his throat at the gesture. Tsukishima stroked Yamaguchi’s greasy hair gently, silently weighing his options as he rested his chin against the bridge of Yamaguchi’s nose. The shorter boy tilted his head to press his forehead against Tsukishima’s, whimpering quietly. Tsukishima sighed and let his hand slide down along Yamaguchi’s waist and let it come to a rest at his hip.  
“Slow down,” Tsukishima muttered softly, letting his fingers slide against the waistband of Yamaguchi’s pants. Yamaguchi rolled his hips slowly against Tsukishima’s and tucked his head back under the blonde’s chin in embarrassment as Tsukishima slid his hand down Yamaguchi’s pants.  
Tsukishima had long fingers and was able to wrap his hand around both their cocks pretty easily. It wasn’t very sexy, or particularly pleasant for that matter. They were too close together so he couldn't move very fast and they were breathing each other's air the entire time. If anything it was awkward, sweaty, chafing, and messy. At least it didn’t take very long and Yamaguchi seemed to enjoy himself and fell asleep right after he finished, leaving Tsukishima to clean up the mess they’d made.  
It didn’t bother him very much, Yamaguchi was drunk and delirious from pain, it was probably for the best that he’d had something to distract him for a little while. It certainly wasn’t something anyone else had to know about ever. Tsukishima watched Yamaguchi’s sleeping face for a long time, long enough that the gentle rhythm of his breathing put him back to sleep.

Yamaguchi didn’t show any signs that he remembered what they did the next morning.

The days blurred together. People occasionally came into the nurses throughout the day to give them food and painkillers they’d found in stores and to check on how Yamaguchi was doing. Yamaguchi was barely coherent most of the time, keeping himself drunk most of the time he was awake. Some days were worse than others, Yamaguchi would wake up hungover and drink until he could barely speak and puking had a hard time keeping his arm elevated, which would only put him in more pain. Tsukishima did his best to keep Yamaguchi entertained and distracted. He’d started reading Harry Potter during the day and he’d sit with Yamaguchi partly in his lap with his arm up against Tsukishima between his chest and the book he read aloud. On nights that Yamaguchi didn’t pass out from the alcohol, he was kept awake from the pain and the sounds of the zombies outside. Sometimes he’d try to kiss Tsukishima, sometimes Tsukishima would let him, and sometimes he’d even kiss him back some. He hated the taste of alcohol on Yamaguchi’s mouth and usually just pushed his head against his chest until he fell asleep.   
It was hard to tell the days and nights apart and hard to watch Yamaguchi’s strength fade. Reading aloud helped keep them both distracted, besides it was a good way to keep Yamaguchi’s arm elevated. Yamaguchi hardly ever spoke while he read aloud so it caught Tsukishima off guard when he did suddenly.  
“Tsukki? Can you turn off one of the light switches? It’s really bright.” Tsukishima looked down at him, his good arm was bent over his forehead to shield his eyes.   
“There's only one light switch in here,” he said, glancing around the room. “Besides I can't read in the dark.”  
“Right, sorry Tsukki.” Tsukishima looked down at him again, his voice sounded weak and he looked exhausted. Tsukishima wondered if he had a migraine, those usually made people's eyes really sensitive to light.  
“I'll turn the lights off if you fall asleep.” He said with a sigh. “It's starting to get late anyway.”  
Tsukishima decided to finish the chapter he was reading before stopping, clearing his throat and setting the book down. Yamaguchi had fallen asleep, as Tsukishima expected. He was in terrible shape, his expression was strained and his breathing was so shallow it looked like he wasn’t breathing at all. It was even hard to find his pulse. Tsukishima’s eyebrows furrowed, he was still alive, right? He didn’t respond when Tsukishima dug his skinny fingers harder into Yamaguchi’s neck trying to feel some sign of life from him. He didn’t respond when Tsukishima shook him and slapped his face or when he tugged his eyelids open only to reveal dry, vacant eyes. Tsukishima’s vision blurred as he tried desperately to find some way to convince himself that Yamaguchi wasn’t dead. His movements dissolved into punching Yamaguchi’s chest as his tears fell onto the lenses of his glasses. Yamaguchi’s body felt stiff under his shaking hands and his face felt cool when Tsukishima pulled him close and kissed him. Tsukishima didn’t want to let go of Yamaguchi and held him tight against his chest, holding the shorter boy’s head against his neck where he liked to sleep.   
He couldn’t stand the thought of not having Yamaguchi with him. Would Yamaguchi reanimate like the corpses on television? Was Yamaguchi going to come back and take him down with him? Tsukishima squeezed Yamaguchi tighter before releasing him and letting him fall back onto his lap. The thought of abandoning the corpse made him sick. He glanced up at the bat that had been left next to the bed in case of Yamaguchi turning. The thought of bludgeoning him back to death made him even sicker. Going back to the gym and telling everyone Yamaguchi had died would fuck up everyone’s morale, he’d carry him there in the morning. He decided he'd stay awake to make sure if Yamaguchi did reanimate he’d at least be able to shove him off. If Yamaguchi did bite him and someone came in to check on them there was the chance of all of them dying. So he had to stay awake at all costs.  
Tsukishima’s chin dropped to his chest and jolted him awake. Fuck, he’d fallen asleep. Light was just barely starting to filter in through the windows, hopefully, it would be enough to keep him awake for a few more hours at least. He shifted awkwardly on the bed, his neck was stiff as hell and his leg had fallen asleep. Yamaguchi’s body was a cold, stiff dead weight on his lap, his lifeless eyes open just enough to dry out as they stared up at the ceiling. He didn’t want to look at Yamaguchi, didn’t want to be reminded of the harsh reality of his death. It didn’t look like he was going to reanimate though, they’d managed to stop the infection completely by removing his arm. But cutting off his arm had probably been what did him in in the end. That or it was alcohol poisoning. Or it got infected somehow without them noticing, it had started to smell pretty bad in the last few days. Or it was all the painkillers.  
His vision blurred with tears again as he looked at Yamaguchi’s body. He’d always heard people describing the faces of dead people as looking peaceful or serene. Yamaguchi didn’t look at peace at all, he looked like he had died while trying to hide the fact he was in pain. His expression one of discomfort. Tsukishima covered his face with his hands and slumped over Yamaguchi, his body shaking with choking sobs.  
When he woke up again it was morning, or at least it was bright enough out to light up the room fully through the windows. Tsukishima sat up stiffly, he hadn’t even been able to keep himself awake, how detestable. His eyes burned from crying himself to sleep and his back throbbed in pain from the awful position he’d slept in. He had to get up, he had to let the others know what happened. Struggling under Yamaguchi’s weight, he lifted the dead boy up and walked awkwardly out of the nurse's office toward the gym. It felt like he was dreaming or like none of this was real. He barely noticed his surroundings, the classrooms, and hallways blurred together. He was navigating purely on muscle memory at this point.  
He wasn’t sure how he managed to open the door to the gym with Yamaguchi in his arms and he had no real plan for what to do after that. He just stood in the doorway with the lifeless body in his arms.  
“What happened?” Someone asked Tsukishima didn’t see who it was.  
“He died,” Tsukishima said flatly. People were moving around inside, getting closer to him. It felt like it had been so long since he’d seen them all at once. All of them looked so much skinnier and dirtier than he remembered.  
“What, did he just not turn or something?” Tsukishima recognized Tanaka’s voice. His hair had gotten longer.  
“Obviously not, I wouldn’t have carried him here if he was a fucking zombie.” Tsukishima snapped.  
“Should we bury him?” Hinata was hiding behind Tanaka and peeking out from behind the taller boy’s arm. Tsukishima paused, he hadn’t even thought that far ahead. It bothered him that Hinata had come up with the suggestion when he had barely known what to say to the rest of his teammates.  
“Yeah, I think we should,” Suga responded. Tsukishima let himself fade into the background as the others started to bustle around, grabbing the shovels they’d been using as weapons. Deciding they should do it as soon as possible, the zombies weren’t as active during the daylight and were very sluggish just after sunrise. The group wandered outside and Tsukishima laid Yamaguchi’s body on the ground, unable to hold him up anymore. Natsu was crying, her face buried in Hinata’s shirt. Hinata looked like he was about to cry as well.  
Aside from the crying, the group was silent as Daichi and Asahi dug a hole big enough to fit Yamaguchi’s body in. Once the hole was big enough Tsukishima lifted Yamaguchi’s body and slid it down into the hole.  
“Should we say something or…?” Nishinoya asked hesitantly.  
“He was a good friend. All of us, we all really loved the guy,” Daichi paused to rub his eye. “He shouldn’t have- he didn’t deserve to leave us so soon.”  
Tsukishima looked around at the others in the group. Hinata and Yachi were standing close together, Hinata had picked up Natsu and Yachi was holding the young girl’s hand comfortingly. They were crying, almost everyone was crying. Kageyama wasn’t crying, just staring down at Yamaguchi’s body and swaying back and forth in a jerky motion like he was about to be sick or collapse any second. Tsukishima didn’t think he could cry anymore, his eyes felt sore and dry.  
“He was our best pinch server.” Tanaka choked out between sobs. “He’s-he’s gonna live on in our memories.”  
They kept calling things out about Yamaguchi, his achievements, his strengths, fond memories they had of him. They continued until the zombies on the other side of the schoolyard started to shuffle closer. They weren’t very fast and usually weren’t much of a threat, even when leaving and entering the gym with supplies. But they were still a threat and Daichi suggested they start burying him before they got much closer.  
“Wait, not just yet.” Suga suddenly grabbed at Daichi’s arm and scampered off towards the woods. After a few moments, he came back with a severed arm in his grasp and placed it in into the makeshift grave on Yamaguchi’s chest. “Might as well bury all of him.”  
“How do you know…” Daichi’s question died in his throat before he could finish and he took a deep breath and started to shovel the dirt back into place. Asahi was crying so hard he could barely hold his shovel and Noya gently took it from his hands so he could do it in Asahi’s place.  
“Just head back inside, it looks like it’s gonna storm and this is gonna take a while,” Noya said, turning to his teammates as he shuffled the dirt in the shallow grave. The others went back inside in small groups, some wanting to linger longer out of respect and others wanting to get back inside as soon as possible.  
Tsukishima didn’t go back inside with the others. He waited there long after the others had gone inside. He stayed after Noya and Daichi finished burying him and left. He stayed when thunder rolled in the distance and rain started to pour down and wash away the mound of dirt that covered Yamaguchi. It didn’t wash away enough to uncover what was buried but enough to flatten the mound somewhat. He didn’t go back into the gym until Kiyoko came back outside to get him, saying that Tsukishima catching a cold was the last thing Yamaguchi would’ve wanted.

 

Even though they hadn’t been awake very long Natsu had managed to cry herself back asleep. Hinata knew deep down she didn’t have the energy because of malnourishment. He decided to just lay her on one of the futons so she could rest longer, it wasn’t like anyone was going to be going out for supplies, it was obviously going to rain.  
He was distracted my Kageyama tugging the back of his sleeve. Hinata hadn’t even realized Kageyama was behind him.  
“Hinata, clubroom,” Kageyama mumbled.   
“I’m fine I kinda got it all out already,” Hinata said reassuringly.  
“No, you dumbass, I need it.” Kageyama hissed through his teeth.  
“Oh! Yeah, just a sec.” Hinata shuffled over to the center of the gym and laid Natsu on one of the futons before locating Yachi. “Yacchan, can you watch Natsu for me? She’s asleep but just if she wakes up…”  
“Yeah of course.” She responded, glancing past Hinata at Kageyama on the other side of the gym. “Leave her to me.”  
“Thanks, Yacchan!” Hinata called before scurrying back across the gym to Kageyama. They left the gym and made the familiar trek to the clubroom. Thunder rumbled in the distance and Hinata worried briefly that Tsukishima would get struck lightning just standing out there.  
Kageyama didn’t bother to turn the light on in the clubroom, it had started flickering badly and not giving off much light at all so there wasn’t much benefit to turning it on at this point. Instead, he barged into the room and started frantically pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, his hands scrunched into fists in his hair. Hinata watched him for a moment, unsure of what to do. He’d never seen Kageyama like this, pacing and shaking, his breathing ragged and his eyes frantic.  
“Kageyama…?” Hinata asked quietly, raising his hands slightly. Kageyama turned to face him and jolted forward, grabbing Hinata and squeezing him tightly in his arms while wailing into his shoulder. Hinata stumbled backward at the sudden force. Kageyama’s fingers gripped his hooded sweatshirt that Hinata still wore and sunk slowly to the floor, dragging Hinata down with him. Hinata half fell onto Kageyama’s lap so Kageyama wrapped his arms tighter around Hinata, his back hunched and his face pressed into Hinata’s chest. He was squeezing hard enough to hurt and Hinata tried to squirm out of his grip.  
“Don’t.” Kageyama blurted, his shoulders tensing and preventing Hinata’s movement for a second before he relaxed, loosening his grip and letting his face slide into the crook of Hinata’s neck. “Please, don’t leave. Promise me you won’t leave me alone.”  
“I’m not going anywhere,” Hinata squeaked softly, letting his hand rest on the nape of Kageyama’s neck.  
“I don’t mean right now.” Kageyama pressed his face harder into Hinata’s neck, his tears sliding down Hinata's skin. “I need you to stay with me. You can’t just leave me.”  
Hinata pursed his lips, Kageyama couldn’t stand the thought of him dying like Yamaguchi had. Like his mother had. He could see where Kageyama was coming from, he shuddered at the thought of Kageyama dying, or worse turning into a zombie and attacking him like his own mother had. But Kageyama wasn’t the same as Hinata, Hinata was very likable and had never had trouble making new friends. Kageyama just wasn’t, Hinata was pretty sure he’d never gotten very close with anyone before until him. Hinata couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to lose someone like that. He let his fingers slip through Kageyama’s dark hair and rested his cheek against Kageyama’s head.  
“I promise I won’t leave,” Hinata said, “I’m gonna stay with you until the end.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh fuck I killed Yamaguchi.
> 
> note to self don't try to work on 2 writing projects at once cause you WILL neglect one.


	5. Rat King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat King-a collection of rats whose tails are intertwined and bound together by one of several possible mechanisms, such as entangling material like hair or sticky substances like sap or gum. The number of rats joined together varies from a few to as many as 32.  
> Noya gets things twisted. Tanaka finds a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> forgot about updating this again lmao

Even with one less mouth to feed it was difficult to find enough food. At this point, they'd managed to ransack all the houses within reasonable walking distance. Even if they found a house they hadn't turned over there was no saying for certain it would have food they could eat. The power had gone down in most buildings leaving most unpackaged food to spoil without proper refrigeration. Even some of the nonperishable food was inedible, having been torn open and chewed by rodents, bugs and God knows what else.  
So the plan they'd set up was simple: send a small, capable group out early in the morning and have them travel as far as possible to find supplies and hopefully get back before nightfall. If they couldn't get back before nightfall, they had weapons they could use to fend off the zombies. Shovels worked well, being able to keep one's distance due to the longer handles. On top of shovels, they still had the baseball bats handy, although they were a bit more awkward to carry now that Tanaka had so kindly hammered nails into them.  
Fortunately, the battery operated clocks still worked so Suga had a better idea of when to wake up the ones who were leaving. Suga had trouble sleeping most nights, the constant dull pain from his hand mixed with the faint ache of hunger weren't the best feelings to lull someone to sleep, especially with the moans of the undead creeping in through the gym walls. The lack of sleep at night didn't bother him very much though, as he usually took naps in the library during the day. He liked sleeping in the library, it didn't have the stench of blood and unwashed teenagers in it, which couldn't be said about the gym. For now, he'd bide his time and let the ones who were going out early sleep.

He knew it would be near impossible to wake up Tanaka and Noya without waking up Asahi as well, given how close together they all slept. That probably wouldn't be too much of a problem, Asahi would want to see them off. Actually, he'd wanted to go with them but he had just gone out for supplies with Daichi and Suga the day before.  
Noya just so happened to be the one in the middle this time. His face was resting against Asahi's chest while Tanaka clung to him from behind. Suga almost felt bad about breaking them up.  
He nudged Tanaka's back with his foot, causing him to stir slightly but not enough to get him up. He nudged harder. This time Tanaka raised his head to find the source of his sudden discomfort. Upon seeing Suga he sighed and sat upright, gently tugging Noya back out of Asahi's hold. Noya, being a bit more of an early riser than Tanaka, sat up and stretched before using Tanaka's shoulder to stand up.  
Suga decided they were awake enough to be left alone and made his way over to Hinata, Natsu, and Kageyama.  
This was going to be a bit more difficult, Hinata had been adamant about not wanting to wake Natsu up when they left. So, of course, she'd fallen asleep wrapped as tight around her brother as humanly possible. After thinking about what his best course of action would be, he crouched down and plugged Hinata's nose. Hinata woke up spluttering quietly until his eyes focused on Suga. He sighed and started to untangle himself from Natsu. Kageyama was sleeping with his back to Hinata so Suga walked around and nudged him in the stomach with his foot. Kageyama jerked awake and rolled onto his stomach. He stayed there for a few seconds before pushing himself up with his hands.  
The four boys gathered together, getting their equipment sorted out and sharing a lukewarm energy drink. Once they'd finished the drink they stood around and stared at each other.  
“So should we just go or..?” Hinata asked.  
“Yeah, I guess we can just leave whenever,” Noya said, stretching his hands above his head.  
“I'm gonna say bye to Asahi real quick,” Tanaka said, turning away and walking towards where Asahi lay on the floor.  
“Oh yeah, me too,” Noya said, tagging along after him.  
Asahi wasn't very awake but managed to give them both a hug and kiss and tell them to try not to get hurt.  
“Okay we can go now,” Noya said, leading the group out the door. It was still pretty dark outside but it seemed like, for the most part, the zombies had started to calm down.  
They walked close together and avoided talking as much as possible, trying not to get the attention of any zombies that they walked by. They couldn’t walk very fast due to the lack of light and the streets being wet from the rain the night before. At least the rain had made the zombies more sluggish.  
Tanaka recognized the street he lived on as they walked down it in silence and he rubber necked his house as they walked past it. For some reason, he didn’t want to go inside and was glad no one mentioned it was his house as they passed. The road was eerily silent as they made their way down it, the only sound being their feet hitting the ground. Not only was it void of sound, but there was also a shocking lack of zombies on this particular stretch of road. It made all four of them incredibly anxious. Usually, zombies were an unpleasant buffet for the senses and not being able to see or hear any of them left only their rotten stench hanging in the air, signaling the boys that they were in fact nearby, just out of reach.  
Their anxieties were all brought to life as they turned the corner at the end of the road. The road they turned on to housed a gigantic crowd of zombies, bigger than any of them had seen anywhere else. They were all totally silent, huddled tight together almost perfectly still. It was like they were stuck together and the whole crowd seemed to gently pulsate and writhe without any one particular zombie moving on it's own. That was until a few of them smelled the presence of four somewhat healthy hunks of teenage meat. A few heads in the crowd turned, a few dead eyes refocused, a few teeth clicked together, a few growls bubbled up from a few throats and suddenly the crowd lurched to life.  
“Run for it!” Noya screeched, grabbing Tanaka by the shirt and sprinting back the way they came. Tanaka spotted Hinata and Kageyama running in the opposite direction from the corner of his eye before the zombies completely obstructed his view.  
They ran together down the road and between houses, ducking around cars and coming to an abrupt halt when Noya tripped on a curb and crashed onto his face. Tanaka grabbed him by the hands, pulling him upright as Noya scrambled to his feet and they continued on until Noya chose a house at random and body slammed the door open and letting them tumble inside the threshold in a pile. Tanaka hopped up and shut the door behind them.  
“Get a chair!” He yelled back at Noya, leaning on the door as hard as he could. Noya scrambled to his feet and ran back into the house. After about a minute he stumbled back with a wooden chair which they shoved under the doorknob on top of locking it. Looking out the window told him that the zombies had broken out of their fucked up crowd and had started to wander the streets more like he was used to seeing.  
Noya sunk to the floor with his head in his hands, gently repeating ‘what the fuck’ to himself over and over. Tanaka stared at him for a long moment then back out the window. It looked like the zombies that wandered the streets had given up their chase and were content to shamble aimlessly around the streets. After a few seconds, Noya’s voice started to pick up, becoming actual words and not just background noise in Tanaka's head.  
“What the fuck. What the FUCK was that? Was that real? Why the fuck were-you saw them right? They were all-all of em just there together. Was that real?”  
Tanaka turned to stare down at Noya’s panicked face for a moment before falling to the floor and pulling Noya into a tight hug against his chest.  
“No, no tell me that was real. I’m not going crazy I saw that it was real I saw it!” Noya yelled incoherently, beating his fists against Tanaka’s back.  
“It was real Noyasan,” Tanaka said softly, stroking Noya’s hair, “there was a huge crowd of em. We got separated from Kageyama and Shouyou.”  
Noya’s fists came to a halt against Tanaka’s back and squeezed the fabric of his shirt. A choked sob bubbled from his throat and he muffled it into Tanaka’s shoulder.  
“I don’t want it to be real,” Noya’s words were barely more than a whisper hidden in his shoulder. Tanaka held him in his arms for a good long while and squeezed him tight before pulling away.  
“We’ll be safe if we stay here, right?” Tanaka asked as he got his shaky legs under him and stood up, “We should at least try and look for stuff to grab.”  
“Right, yeah,” Noya said, going to stand up but dropping into a kneel, “Fuck.”  
“What? What’s wrong?” Tanaka crouched back down by Noya.  
“Fuck, I think I twisted my ankle. Son of a bitch,” Noya cursed, pulling off his sneaker and hiking up his pant leg to look at his swollen ankle.  
“Shit, do you want help getting up?”  
“Yeah,” Noya leaned into Tanaka as the taller boy slung Noya’s arm around his broad shoulders and pulled him up off the ground. “Let’s find the kitchen.”  
They stumbled awkwardly into the kitchen where Tanaka planted Noya on a chair by some cabinets he could scrounge through while Tanaka wrapped his ankle. Noya watched him fumble shakily with the ace bandage he pulled from his backpack for a while before leaning over the counter to open the cabinet he was closest to. He pulled out a box of dry cereal and opened it to check the contents. Crawling with bugs, fucking great. He put the box on the counter and pulled out another. The plastic bag in this was rolled up properly so it didn’t look like any bugs had gotten inside. He crammed his hand inside and shoved a big fistful into his mouth.  
Stale, but still one of the best things he’d eaten all week. He glanced down at Tanaka to ask if he wanted any. Tanaka was hugging his calf against his chest with his cheek squished into his knee. Unshed tears glistened in his eyes. Noya sighed and ran a hand through his hair, getting cereal dust in the short, shaggy locks.  
Tanaka broke down at his touch, sobbing into Noya’s knee and babbling incoherently about how they’d never see Hinata and Kageyama again. Noya leaned forward and pulled Tanaka into more of a proper hug. He was still on his knees on the floor but at least sobbing into Noya’s chest was a bit more dignified than his knee.  
It took a long time for him to calm down again but he finally did, pulling out of Noya’s arms and wiping his eyes on the back of his sleeve. Noya handed him the box of cereal wordlessly and Tanaka took it from him, cramming a huge fistful into his own mouth.  
“Holy shit, I’m literally starving,” he said softly, realizing this was probably the most nutritious thing he’d eaten in days. Noya gave him a slow nod before grabbing another box of cereal from the cabinet.

They spent the rest of the day limping around the house, scrounging for things that might be useful. They packed unspoiled food and some first aid stuff and deodorant into their backpacks. The food they decided was still okay and wasn’t portable they ate on the spot. Most of the food was spoiled and furry with mold though. Enough that Tanaka gagged and dry heaved when he opened the fridge and instantly slammed it closed it again.  
“My stomach hurts,” Noya complained, leaning against the bathroom sink as Tanaka stuffed toilet paper into his backpack.  
“Yeah, me too,” Tanaka said, “probably cause we ate a lot, yeah?”  
“I’m going with that, yeah,” he really didn’t want to think about the alternative, he had to deal with Asahi throwing up enough already. Tanaka stood up and grunted with the effort of lifting his bag.  
“I think we got enough stuff, right?” Tanaka said, holding his arm out to help Noya walk out of the bathroom with him.  
“Yeah, I mean I’m not sure I can even carry mine back,” Noya joked but instantly regretted. He probably couldn’t carry it, hell he could barely walk.  
Tanaka was distracted as they left the room.  
“Dude, how long have we been here?” he asked, staring out one of the windows. It was starting to get dark out.  
“I don’t…” Noya trailed off, how long had they been there? Now that he thought about it it did seem like they’d been there a long time. But they’d left so early, how was it dusk already.  
“Should we like, look for somewheres to sleep?” Tanaka asked.  
“Probably, yeah,” Noya answered.  
Tanaka took their bags and put them in the front hall so they’d be easy to grab in the morning, or whatever time it was when decided to leave. He looked out the window again, there were more zombies shuffling around on the street. They seemed more lively now that the sun was starting to go down. Had they been crowding together like that because of the rain? Did the rain make their rotting skin sick together? Were they having some kind of weird undead orgy? That was gross, they weren’t doing that.  
He turned around and walked down the hallway to where Noya had ended up. One of the doors was open and Tanaka looked in it as he passed. A small office with a window overlooking a desk with a computer and an empty glass on it. Papers were scattered the floor, along with some old plastic bags. Obviously not a good place to spend the night.  
Noya had moved farther along and opened another door. “Oh,” he said as he opened it and limped inside. Tanaka followed him. This one was a bedroom with what Tanaka guessed was a queen size bed in the center of the room with the headboard against the opposite wall from the door. Noya stumbled forward and flopped face first onto it with a groan, letting the bat he’d been using as a makeshift crutch roll onto the floor. Tanaka shut the door behind him as he entered and flopped down next to Noya.  
Holy shit. When was the last time he was on a real, actual bed that he could sleep on? A groan escaped his mouth as he snuggled down into the blankets. He felt Noya move on the bed next to him, scooching up the bed on his belly like a slug so he could crawl under the blankets. Tanaka giggled and crawled up with him.  
Noya snuggled up to him as soon as they were both under the blankets, wrapping his arms around Tanaka and nuzzling his face into his chest. Tanaka smiled and ran his fingers through Noya’s hair, it was getting really long, long enough it reached the base of his neck. He twisted his fingers into it, it was pretty greasy but who’s hair wouldn’t be at this point? Noya shifted slightly in his grasp, craning his neck up and kissing Tanaka under the chin. Tanaka sighed and looked down at Noya, letting their noses brush against each other for a few seconds before leaning in and kissing him.  
Holy shit why had none of them ever thought about sleeping in a vacant house? This was so much better than sleeping on a gym floor with a bunch of other people. Sure survival in numbers and all that but damn it was great to have some fucking privacy for once. Also, abandoned or not, there was just something that made him a little uncomfortable about having sex in an empty classroom. He dealt with it sure and had never turned down a quiet offer to do so. And it wasn’t like he had anything to compare it to anyway. Wow, this was going to be the first time he had sex on an actual bed. Man, the apocalypse sure liked to fuck with his life in weird ways.  
Noya ran his hands up under Tanaka’s shirt so his hands lay flat against his chest, running them gently over his skin. Tanaka hummed softly at his touch and wrapped his arms around Noya’s back so he could tug them closer together, their legs tangling together. Their movements were slow and sluggish, lazily rolling their hips together, letting their hands roam under clothes, over skin, and through hair, their kissing occasionally interrupted by breathy giggles and affectionate smiles.  
It occurred to him that they were not prepared to have like, full-on sex. He’d left their backpacks by the front door and there wasn’t even anything they could use in there. This really wasn’t an outcome he had expected when they all left this morning. Noya ground into his thigh with a breathy groan. Okay, maybe they didn’t need to go all the way. Whatever, they’d figure something out.  
He reached down into the small space between them, Noya's jeans were soft against his fingertips from being worn and broken in so much. The zipper went down easy as well and then Noya was closing the small space between them and bucking into his hand, his chest pressed flush against Tanaka’s. An affectionate smile spread across Tanaka's face as he fumbled trying to get his hand into Noya's underwear. Noya let out a breathy sigh and pressed his lips against Tanaka's neck as Tanaka's fingers gently squeezed his shaft.  
“Ryuu,” Noya whispered against Tanaka’s neck, making Tanaka shiver. Tanaka pushed him onto his back, pinning him down and kissing his neck and making Noya moan softly. His hand ran up under Noya’s shirt, hiking it up to his armpits before kissing down his chest, pushing the blankets down with him. He paused briefly just under Noya’s bellybutton to look up at his face for a split second before slipping Noya’s dick into his mouth. Noya groaned and ran his hands down to grip Tanaka’s short hair.  
Tanaka huffed through his nose as Noya ground his hips slowly into his face. His tongue rubbing against the dick in his mouth. Noya’s panting breaths growing harder and more vocal the longer he worked. Tanaka winced slightly as Noya gripped his hair tighter with shaking hands and he was pulling Tanaka’s head back.  
He wasn’t quite fast enough and Tanaka managed to still get some of Noya’s cum in his mouth. It was bitter and he gagged and coughed for a moment, sitting up on his knees and causing the blanket to slide off his back. He wiped some off with the back of his hand before grabbing a fistful of the blanket and using it to wipe the rest off. It wasn’t like anyone else was going to use it after them so what did it matter? Noya shifted back and sat upright, reaching out to pull Tanaka close again.  
“Sorry,” Noya said, snuggling his face into Tanaka’s chest, “I got it on your face.”  
“I don’t mind,” Tanaka responded, leaning down to kiss the bridge of Noya’s nose. He shivered slightly as Noya’s hands ran over his sides and down to grab his hips. Tanaka bit his lip, his boner was pressed against Noya’s chest and Noya’s fingers had dipped gently under the waistband of his pants.  
“You wanna lay down or are you good here?” Noya asked, shifting down lower and kissing Tanaka’s hip. Tanaka considered that for a while, watching Noya start to undo his fly.  
“Yeah let me lay down,” he sighed, shuffling back so he could lay down next to Noya rather than being up over him. Noya kissed his jaw quickly before crawling over Tanaka’s body and pulling Tanaka out of his pants. He lay with one of his arms was draped across Tanaka’s belly with his hand coming to a rest at his hip and his other hand wrapped around his length. Tanaka reached down to pet Noya’s hair as his lips pressed against the head of his dick.  
His eyes fluttered shut and a groan escaped his throat when Noya took him into his mouth. Moaning softly as Noya sucked on him and ran his fingertips gently over his hip.  
“God, Noya,” Tanaka breathed softly as Noya started to take him deeper. He rolled his hips gently, making sure not to force it too deep down Noya’s throat and make him choke. Noya started to pump him around the base, his lips bumping against his knuckles every few seconds. Tanaka’s eyes squeezed shut and his head fell back. He reached down to slide his fingers through Noya’s greasy hair.  
“I’m gonna come,” Tanaka’s voice was strained and Noya gave the tip a parting lick before sitting up, continuing to jerk him off until he spilled over onto Noya’s knuckles. Noya gave Tanaka a smile as he tucked himself back into his pants before sitting up and wiping his hand off on the blanket as well before snuggling up next to Tanaka.  
“Love you Ryuu,” Noya said softly. Tanaka pulled the now stained blanket back up around them and wrapped his arms tight around Noya, placing a kiss on the top of his head.  
“I love you too Noya,” was the last thing he said before sinking into the bed and drifting off to sleep.

 

They woke up to the sound of shattering glass followed by a loud thud and crash. Tanaka bolted upright at the sound and started to scramble out of bed. Oh yeah, this was why they didn’t have sleepovers in abandoned houses: the zombies. He threw his body against the door and put his ear against it. It was close, shuffling somewhere in the hallway. He remembered the window in the computer room he’d looked into, that must have been where it had gotten in from. Noya came up next to him, holding a bat in his hand.  
“It’s in the hallway,” Tanaka whispered. Noya nodded at him and pressed his own ear against the door to listen as well.  
“It sounds injured,” Noya commented. He was right, it sounded like it was shuffling around on the floor and couldn’t get up.  
“Should we try and make a run for it?” Tanaka asked.  
“I don’t know if I can run,” Noya said softly. Oh yeah, his ankle was fucked up.  
“Do you think we should try and kill it?”  
They looked at each other for a moment, considering their limited options. Noya was about to speak up when something heavy slammed into the door hard enough to knock them off it. Tanaka jumped back to lean against it again.  
“Shit, fuck yeah I think we gotta kill it,” Noya said, putting his shaking hand back against the door.  
“Okay, okay,” Tanaka took a deep breath, “Okay, give me the other bat I’m gonna open the door and whack the fuck out of it and you back me up okay?”  
“Right, got it,” Noya shuffled back and grabbed the other bat to hand to Tanaka. They looked at each other’s faces again for a long moment. Taking a few deep, deep breaths to calm themselves down.  
“Okay, count of three?” Tanaka said.  
“Count of three,” Noya echoed, taking a few steps back so Tanaka would have enough room to do the deed. Tanaka took a few moew deep breaths.  
“One...two…..three!” Tanaka swung the door open wide, causing the zombie on the other side to stagger forward into the room, limping hard on a wounded leg but catching herself before she fell over.

And Tanaka froze up, his entire body going rigid as the monster lifted her head to stare at him. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t bring himself to. Couldn’t even breathe. His brain going hazy at the mere sight of her. The only thing his brain could register was her face. Like his brain was getting tunnel vision and the only thing he could see was the half rotting face of his sister.  
He registered that he was moving again, but he wasn’t going anywhere, just shaking hard enough his teeth chattered. It was Saeko. She hadn’t made it. Must have been turned a while ago, judging by how much her skin was decaying. He had thought she’d found a way to survive with her college friends. But she hadn’t. She was there right in front of him. It had been so long since he’d seen her last. She’d managed to find him somehow. Even after all this time she’d managed to find him. Crawled through a window to get to him. And she was coming for him. Dragging herself toward him with her teeth bared.  
“Ryuu!” Noya shouted, pulling Tanaka back to his senses and making him take a few steps back.  
“I-I-I can’t kill her she’s my sister!” Tanaka said, tears starting to slide down his cheeks. Saeko took another lunge toward him and he stepped back again. His back hit the wall and dread sunk into him. He had nowhere else to run. She was going to get him.  
Noya shoved between them, brandishing his bat threateningly at her. Tanaka knew he was bluffing. Saeko was as much of a sister to Noya as she was to him. There was no way he could kill her either. They were going to fucking die here. He was going to watch his sister kill Noya before she killed him.  
But she didn’t, instead, she grabbed Noya and shoved him to the side, making him fall to his side onto the bed. And she continued on toward Tanaka. He screeched. Trying to back up even more but hitting the wall again.  
“No no no no go away staw away from me,” he babbled. She didn’t listen and continued to lurch toward him, her leg buckling hard beneath her. He had to get away. Had to get them somewhere safe.  
He lunged back at her, grabbing her shoulder and shoving her to the side so her injured leg crumpled beneath her and sent her crashing onto the floor with a screechy gurgle. He grabbed Noya by the hand and sprinted away, crashing through the house as fast as possible and grabbing their bags before crashing out though the front door out into the street.  
The sun was starting to rise and light up the bloodstains on the pavement. Their feet slamming hard against the road was the only thing he could hear over the pounding in his ears. He couldn’t feel his legs, the only thing he could feel was Noya’s little hand clenched tightly in his own. They were about halfway back to the school when he registered that Noya was crying. But he couldn’t look back now. Not when they were so close to safety. So close to getting away from her. The sound still bit into his brain and made tears fall down his own face as well.  
Karasuno was in sight when Noya fell, collapsing to the ground and almost dragging Tanaka down with him. Tanaka finally turned down to look at him. His face was beet red and wrenched with pain, tears streaking down his face. He tugged on Noya’s hand, trying to get him up again. They were so close. Couldn’t he see how close they were?  
“Ryuu, fuck. My fuckin’ leg,” Noya choked out. Tanaka’s heart dropped. He’d forgotten all about Noya’s twisted ankle. He’d forced him to run so far on it.  
“Shit, Noya I’m sorry,” Tanaka crouched down and tugged Noya upright, gathering him up in his arms and sliding his arm around Tanaka’s shoulders. They trudged on with Tanaka half dragging half carrying Noya to the gym. They were so close. The gym was right there. Noya was still sobbing against him when Tanaka slammed his fist into the door. He didn’t know how the door opened. He didn’t remember opening it. But he didn't remember anyone else opening it either. He was just suddenly on the floor inside with Noya cradled in his arms, his voice raw from the screaming sobs that ripped through it.  
And everything came crashing around him. His sister was fucking dead. She was dead and she knew he was alive. She knew he was alive and wanted nothing more than to take him down with her. And they hadn’t been able to kill her.  
“She’s gonna come for me. She’s gonna come kill me. We didn't kill her she's gonna come get me.”  
The words spilled out of his mouth over and over. People were talking to him. Trying to find out what happened. Someone tried to touch him, tried to take Noya out of his arms. He jerked away with a screech, clutching Noya tighter to him.  
It was Asahi and he flinched away slightly at Tanaka’s reaction. Tanaka relaxed at the sight of him. Asahi tried to touch them again and Tanaka let him. He dissolved into sobs in Asahi’s arms.  
He didn’t know how long they were sitting there sobbing, ignoring the others' questions. After what seemed like hours he finally stopped crying. Asahi’s fingers dragged through his hair. He pulled his head away and finally looked around the room. Someone said something and he turned toward the noise. Suga was standing there looking down at him.  
“What?” Tanaka asked. Suga took a deep, shuddering breath and repeated himself slowly.

“Where are Hinata and Kageyama?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> protip putting your stuff in comic sans makes you write more


	6. touch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Kageyama get lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow forgot about this fic again my bad

Hinata didn’t know where he was going, all he knew was he was running as fast as he could. There were too many zombies behind him, even though he was too scared to look behind him to check he knew they were there. The huge crowd lurching to life was burned into his mind. Footsteps pounded close to him and the sound sent his brain scrambling with fear. He ran faster. The houses and streets blended together. He dodged around zombies that wandered the streets, jumping over ones on the ground and shoving wildly at ones that got too close as he passed. The footsteps still didn’t go away no matter how far he went. No matter how fast he forced himself to run they were always right behind him. Pounding loudly on the concrete almost close enough to step on the back of his shoes.  
A hand grabbed his shoulder from behind and he shrieked. He grabbed the arm, digging his nails in and whipping his head around, ready to fight for his life. His frantic eyes met the familiar dark blue of Kageyama’s and for a moment he saw the pale, sickly skin and sunken cheeks of his mother in Kageyama’s face. He twisted trying to get away and fell onto his ass, dragging Kageyama halfway down with him as he still clung to his arm.  
“Hinata, calm the fuck down,” Kageyama thrashed his arm from Hinata’s grip. Hinata was shaking and his chest heaved.  
“Kageyama,” Hinata whined, tears starting to blur his vision. His whole body felt awful. His stomach hurt and his head was pounding and his legs were sore and his eyes were burning and his fingertips were numb. He covered his eyes. Kageyama took a deep breath and crouched next to him, putting his arm on Hinata's shoulder.  
“Calm down, we just need to get somewhere safe for the night, we'll be okay. We got away,” Kageyama was out of breath from running. Hinata wanted to reach out and cling to him for warmth. He was sweaty from running but he was still so cold. Kageyama pulled him up onto his feet and Hinata clung to his arm. His legs were shaking.  
“Where are we? How far did we go?” he asked.  
“No idea. Long way away.”  
Hinata sighed heavily and leaned against Kageyama’s arm. There were a few little stores and a gas station on the road they were on now. Hinata didn’t recognize them and worried that they’d somehow run all the way to another town. Kageyama lead them, stumbling, toward a convenience store that Hinata noticed had a second floor to it as they got a little closer.  
The first thing Hinata noticed when he entered was that one of the aisles had tipped over, spilling merchandise all over the floor and crushing a zombie underneath its weight. The zombie twitched when they entered and moved, pushing itself up onto it’s shaking arms. It started to drag itself forward, ripping its body in half and leaving its legs under the fallen aisle, trailing its intestines across the floor as it moved toward them. Hinata grimaced at the sight and averted his eyes as Kageyama hit it in the temple with his bat, sending its stinking brain matter across the linoleum.  
Kageyama sighed heavily, “let’s look for something to eat.”  
They wandered around the remaining aisles, picking things off the shelves and cramming stale snacks into their mouths. There was a freezer that had once held ice cream and other frozen treats but now contained a huge melted puddle in the bottom that was more mold and dead ants than anything else at this point. Hinata decided not to open it. He looked up to see Kageyama open a package, grimace and close it again before letting it drop to the floor.  
“Not really much here,” Hinata commented. Kageyama turned to look at him and nodded. They moved closer together and stayed next to each other as they looked over the rest of the shelves. They ended up eating raw cup noodles on the floor next to each other.  
“Do you think the others are okay?” Hinata asked. Kageyama stopped chewing.  
“I don’t know.”  
“I hope they’re okay.”  
“I think we should just worry about keeping us okay right now.”  
Hinata sighed heavily. Kageyama was probably right. Hinata hated when he was probably right.  
“I think the upstairs might be apartments,” Kageyama continued. He turned to face Hinata, who was crunching a big mouthful of raw ramen. “You wanna go check it out when we’re done eating?”  
“Yeah,” Hinata licked his dry lips. They continued eating until their dry ramen had been eaten and stood up. Hinata felt very full, like the cup-shaped ramen block had formed a stiff lump in his stomach. He sighed and lead the way up the dark stairs.  
His foot had barely landed on the top step when a zombie lunged around the corner at him. He shrieked and shoved at it, managing to put a good distance between them as he toppled backward down the stairs. His head knocked painfully on the steps and his shoulder crunched loudly as all his weight landed on it. Pain shot up his arm and he cried out in pain. He shut his eyes tight and gripped his shoulder as he landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. He could hear Kageyama run up the stairs past him and the sound of a scuffle. Tears ran down his cheeks and his head rested against the wall. Then the stairs creaked as someone walked down them.

“Hinata,” Kageyama crouched down next to him. Hinata whimpered in response. Kageyama cursed under his breath and awkwardly scooped Hinata’s small body into his arms. He hoped that one was only one zombie upstairs as he stepped over the viscera it had spilled all over the top of the stairs. Of course, it wasn’t and another zombie stumbled out of a room and started to follow Kageyama. Kageyama shouldered a door open and, finding it empty, placed Hinata on the floor and turned around to lock the door behind him. He could hear the zombie on the other side on the door moaning and scratching at the wood but after a moment it quieted down again. Kageyama shuddered, he didn’t like how quiet the zombies here were.  
He turned to Hinata, who was in a crumpled heap on the floor. He sat down next to him and reached out to touch Hinata’s arm. Hinata sobbed and shied away from Kageyama’s touch. Kageyama frowned and scooched closer to him. Hinata leaned away.  
“Cut it out,” Kageyama snapped, “I gotta take your hoodie off so I can see it.”  
“It hurts,” Hinata whined.  
“I know it does,” Kageyama reached out to take Hinata's hand and gently tug the sleeve of his hoodie off it. After a bit of struggling, he managed to get the majority of the hoodie off. Hinata’s injured arm, which he seemed unable to move, was the only part still in it. He grabbed the bunched up fabric on Hinata’s shoulder and gently shimmied it down off his arm. He hissed through his teeth at the sight.  
Hinata’s arm looked like it had been pulled out of it’s socket. His shoulder had a weird shape, the bone poking against his skin visible in places it shouldn’t have been. Kageyama swallowed dryly.  
“I think you dislocated it.”  
Hinata only groaned in response.  
Kageyama bit his lip. He had a vague idea of how to fix a dislocated shoulder. He’d heard it on tv or read it somewhere or maybe both, he wasn’t sure. You just had to pop it back into it’s socket. He reached out, wrapping his fingers gently around Hinata's bicep. Hinata looked up at him fearfully.  
“I know what I’m doing,” Kageyama lied, “just hold still and let me do this, okay?”  
Hinata’s lip quivered but he nodded. Kageyama nodded back and pulled hard on Hinata’s arm.  
Hinata screamed in pain as his body was dragged toward Kageyama. Kageyama hissed in frustration, “no you- pull away from me.”  
Hinata’s body was weak and shaky. Kageyama wasn’t sure Hinata had even heard him. He grunted and planted his foot against Hinata’s ribcage for traction as he pulled Hinata’s arm again. Hinata screeched and punched at Kageyama’s leg with his good hand. Kageyama did his best to ignore it before yanking Hinata’s limb back into place with a loud pop. He let go. Hinata’s shoulder looked normal again and he was hit with a wave of triumph before Hinata’s body slumped lifelessly against him.  
“Hinata?” Kageyama asked. Hinata didn’t respond as his torso slid heavily into Kageyama’s lap. Kageyama’s shoulders tensed.  
“Hinata? Wake up dumbass come on,” he slapped at Hinata’s cheek. Panic surged through him. What if he’d somehow severed a nerve that went to his brain and killed him? The thought of never hearing Hinata’s voice again made Kageyama’s throat go dry. He gathered Hinata up in his arms and sobbed into his neck, his fingers digging into the back of Hinata’s shirt.  
“Hinata, wake up please I can’t- you can’t. Come on wake up please I’m sorry I’m so sorry,” he nuzzled desperately into Hinata's neck, trying to smell him as much as he could. Hinata’s neck was wet with tears. He didn’t care. He rocked them back and forth, his eyes squeezed shut and his arms squeezing Hinata as tight as he could.  
“-geyama,” Hinata choked out, “can’t breathe.”  
Kageyama released him immediately and grabbed the sides of Hinata’s face. Hinata gasped for breath and coughed twice. Kageyama just stared at him. His watery brown eyes, his dirty orange hair, his pale skin, and flushed cheeks. A whine escaped Kageyama’s throat and Hinata’s face grew concerned.  
“Kageyama? Why are you crying?”  
Kageyama pulled Hinata back into a desperately close hug, “I thought I fuck- I thought I killed you, dumbass. I-” his voice broke and he buried his face in Hinata’s shoulder.  
“Did I pass out? How long was I out?”  
“Doesn’t matter.”  
Hinata sighed and wrapped his arms around Kageyama’s back, letting the taller man snuggle into him better. After a few seconds, he shifted until he was sitting on Kageyama’s lap with his legs on either side of Kageyama’s hips.  
“Kageyama I’m okay,” Hinata said softly.  
“Are you?”  
“My shoulder feels a lot better.”  
Kageyama sighed heavily. His lips were pressed against Hinata’s neck. He could feel Hinata getting cold without his hoodie on. He pulled Hinata a little closer, until their chests were pressed together.  
“Kageyama?”  
Kageyama groaned in response. Hinata nuzzled into his shoulder.  
“Kageyama, I’m tired. And I’m cold. Can we try to sleep somewhere?”  
Kageyama sighed heavily and loosened his hold, “yeah.”  
Hinata leaned back to look around the room. Kageyama found his eyes glued to Hinata’s chest. His hands found purchase on Hinata’s slim waist, gently rubbing up and down making his shirt bunch slightly before smoothing back down. Hinata shivered a little as his shirt lifted up, revealing a stip of the skin on his belly that Kageyama’s eyes were instantly glued to.  
“Kageyama?”  
Kageyama looked up at Hinata’s face. Upon realizing what his hands had been doing, he pulled them away. “Sorry.”  
“It’s fine I just,” Hinata tugged his shirt back down, hiding the skin on his belly again, “I’m just cold so...”  
“Yeah,” Kageyama’s cheeks felt hot. He let Hinata crawl off his lap and put Kageyama’s hoodie back on. Kageyama blinked a few times and looked away to observe the rest of the room. There was a computer and a desk in the corner as well as a shelf and an empty dog bed that sat on the floor. Hinata crawled over to the dog bed and flipped it over before laying down and using it as a pillow. Kageyama crawled over to him.  
“Can I lie with you?” he asked.  
“Yeah sure,” Hinata scooched forward a little so Kageyama had some room to use the dog bed as well. Kageyama felt a little stupid for asking. He lay down behind Hinata with his hands tucked to his chest. He wanted to hold Hinata close to him but felt awkward enough already. They were quiet for a long time. Quiet enough Kageyama could hear the zombie outside the door shuffling from foot to foot every few moments. It got colder the later it got. He tried to force himself to keep his eyes shut to make himself go to sleep.  
“Kageyama?” Hinata whispered softly. Kageyama’s eyes opened.  
“What?”  
Hinata looked back over his shoulder at Kageyama, “you can hold me if you want. It’s not very warm…”  
“Yeah,” Kageyama scooched forward until Hinata’s back was pressed against his chest. Hinata sighed contently as Kageyama’s arm draped over him and held him gently. Kageyama let his nose press against the back of Hinata’s head. His legs bent until they were pressed against the backs of Hinata’s. The heat from Hinata’s body warmed his chest and soothed his nerves a little.  
His hand rubbed idly over Hinata’s chest, moving slowly up and down. After a few moments, his hand slid lower and gently pushed under the edge of his hoodie and under his shirt. Hinata made a soft noise in his throat as Kageyama’s hand pressed against his bare stomach. They stayed like that for a few seconds before Kageyama slid his hand up to Hinata’s chest. He felt Hinata shiver against him. Hinata curled up slightly, cradling Kageyama’s arm against his chest, his hands gently holding Kageyama’s over his shirt. Kageyama curled around him protectively.  
“Goodnight Kageyama,” Hinata whispered softly. Kageyama nodded against the back of his neck.  
“Goodnight, Hinata.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter was kinda short

**Author's Note:**

> nothing too outrageous so far


End file.
